Thaindian News

London, Dec 27 (IANS) Social networking website Facebook has been flooded with comments condemning the killing of Indian student Anuj Bidve in Manchester with one terming the killers “vermin”.

The 23-year-old Bidve, from Pune in India’s Maharashtra state, was part of a group of nine men and women — all Indian students — visiting the city for a short break for Christmas. He was a postgraduate student in micro-electronics at Lancaster University.

Bidve was shot in the head while walking from his hotel in Salford area towards the Manchester city centre around 1.30 a.m. He died at a hospital a short while later.

Rakesh Sonawane, another resident of Pune, who now stays in Manchester, described on Facebook what he saw at the spot.

“In the early hours of the morning - I arrived at a scene i will never forget. Anuj Bidve had been shot in the head - for no reason what so ever. I feel like i myself did not do enough to help Anuj this morning - i feel that neither did the police and ambulance crews.”

“I have been made aware that Funds are needed to help get Anujs body back to India. Being from Manchester myself - i feel that we should all try to raise money and help this helpless guy’s family deal with this loss of their young son’s life,” he wrote.

“I personally feel disgusted that someone from our town could do such a thing to a visitor of our city,” he said.

Sonawane appealed for help and asked people to get in touch with him.

Bidve’s father Subhash also appealed for help on Facebook: “Pl help in getting Anuj’s dead body back to India.”

Sunit Parab from Glasgow said it was “really a sad incident to have happened”.

One Facebook user Yas Miin termed the killers “sick scumbags” and asked for their hanging.

“R.I.P to anuj may god bless him such a young life taken away frm his parents and family hpe ther catch the sick scumbags and hang them,” she wrote.

Manchester residents Becca Cloughley Lewtas said she was “ashamed that someone from my city would do such a vile act”.

“I truly hope they catch the vermin who did this to you,” she wrote further.

One man named Shripad Sathe, however, opposed taking the body back to India.

“Whilst I did not know this gentleman before, might I also, with due respect to everyone, also suggest last respects might be paid in the UK, rather than carry him (all with paperwork etc which is mentally traumatic) to India? Sincere apologies if this hurts anyone,” Sathe wrote on the website.