E-Paper
Indian student allegedly murdered on Chinese varsity campus
The body of Aman Nagsen was found by the staff of Tianjin Foreign Studies University on Thursday in his room on the university campus.
A 20-year-old Indian student was allegedly murdered in his university room in the city of Tianjin, around 100km south of Beijing, last week, a family member said on Monday.
The body of Aman Nagsen was found by the staff of Tianjin Foreign Studies University (TFSU) on Thursday in his room on the university campus. Nagsen was enrolled for the International Business Studies course and was from Gaya in Bihar.
Details are sketchy about the case with neither the local police nor the Indian embassy in Beijing releasing particulars about it.
The Chinese foreign ministry is yet to respond to a query from the Hindustan Times on the crime, which has many in the Indian diaspora in China abuzz.
It could not be immediately confirmed if a foreign national was involved in the alleged murder.
“We were informed about the death of my nephew by the university at 1am in the intervening night of July 29th and 30th,” the deceased’s uncle Pankaj Paswan said from Gaya.
Late on Monday, Paswan, who has been in constant touch with officials at the Indian embassy in Beijing, told HT it was “murder” after being asked whether Nagsen’s family members suspected foul play behind the death of Nagsen.
Family members had been informed about Tianjin police’s initial findings, HT learnt from official sources.
Indian embassy officials here remained tight-lipped because of the “sensitivity” of the matter.
Last week, worried family members got in touch with Nagsen’s local guardian in Beijing after being unable to contact him for several days.
The local guardian in turn got in touch with TFSU authorities, persuading them to look him up.
That was when Nagsen’s body was found in the room.
Nagsen’s family last spoke to him on July 23 after which he did not respond to calls or messages and did not accept a money transfer via a mobile app.
While the 20-year-old’s body was recovered in the intervening night of July 29 and 30, several questions remain unanswered including the exact time and date of the crime and, most importantly, motive.
On July 30, Bihar’s BJP chief, Sanjay Jaiswal, tweeted about the death of the student and asked the embassy to intervene in bringing the youth’s body home.
The Indian embassy responded in a tweet saying it was in communication with Chinese authorities and the deceased’s family and was “providing all possible assistance”.
A distraught Paswan, the uncle quoted earlier, said the family has urgently requested the Indian government through the external affairs ministry to help in getting Nagsen’s body back in India. “We request both the Indian and Chinese governments to help in sending the body back to India,” he said.
Paswan added that a demonstration was organised by a group of students in Gaya to demand the quick return of Nagsen’s remains.
The news of Nagsen’s death was being shared among social media groups involving Indians with links to China and many requested the Indian embassy to urgently look into the matter as well.
It was learnt that officials from the Indian embassy in Beijing are working on repatriating Nagsen’s remains to India and are in touch with authorities in Tianjin.
As per Chinese protocol in such cases, autopsy is likely to be conducted before the body is released to be taken back to India.
Nagsen was among the few Indian students to have remained in China following the Covid-19 outbreak here.
The vast majority of around 23,000 Indian students studying here had returned to India by themselves or via evacuation flights in 2020.
They have not been able to return to China because of the ban on the return of foreign students imposed by Beijing because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
