The body of Naveen Shekarappa Gyanagoudar, 21, an Indian medical student who died in Ukraine on March 1, arrived in Bengaluru on Monday morning and was taken to his home town in Haveri town of Karnataka.
Gyanagoudar, a fourth-year medical student at Kharkiv National Medical University, was killed when he stepped out of his apartment to buy groceries. He was the first Indian casualty in the Ukraine war.
His last rites will be done according to the Veerashaiva-Lingayat community’s tradition, Gyanagoudar’s family said. The body will then be donated to SS Medical College for research. “We will perform the rituals as per our tradition and then will donate his body,” said Shekarappa, Gyanagoudar’s father.
“Since childhood, he wanted to become a doctor and serve society. However, he did not get a seat in a government medical college in India, so he went to Ukraine to pursue his medical education. His dream of becoming a doctor did not come true, so we decided to donate his body so that the future generation could do their research and be beneficial for them,” his father said.
It was a Herculean task to bring the body back from the war-torn country, said Karnataka chief minister Basavaraj Bommai, who received the body around 3 am at Bengaluru airport. “It is unfortunate that so many people returned (from Ukraine) but Naveen lost his life in the bombing,” Bommai said.
{{/usCountry}}It was a Herculean task to bring the body back from the war-torn country, said Karnataka chief minister Basavaraj Bommai, who received the body around 3 am at Bengaluru airport. “It is unfortunate that so many people returned (from Ukraine) but Naveen lost his life in the bombing,” Bommai said.
{{/usCountry}}He credited the central government’s sustained efforts for ensuring safe passage for a special flight that brought back the body. “Naveen was to be received by his parents on his return as a doctor after completing his studies. It is unfortunate that his parents had to receive his mortal remains,” Bommai said.
Earlier, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had spoken to the student’s family and offered his condolences. Gyanagoudar’s father said Modi had assured him that his body will be brought back. “He said that the government is making all efforts to bring back the body to India.”
Bommai said under Operation Ganga, around 19,000 Indian students, including 572 from Karnataka, were brought back from Ukraine. “62 students from the state returned before the start of the operation,” the chief minister said. He added he was in constant contact with the Prime Minister’s Office and external affairs minister S Jaishankar.
The body was embalmed before being flown back, Bommai said. “Despite shelling near the mortuary, the body was brought to Versova, where it was given a zinc coating and brought to Dubai from where the flight carrying the body ultimately arrived in Bengaluru,” he said.
The chief minister promised all help to the student’s family.
With agency inputs