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Murder of Indian student in China: Talks on to get the body released
Aman Nagsen, who hailed from Bihar’s Gaya, was a student in the Tianjin Foreign Studies University. He was found dead on July 29.
Negotiations were ongoing on Wednesday between Indian and Chinese officials for an early release of the remains of the 20-year-old Indian student Aman Nagsen who was murdered on campus at a varsity in Tianjin city last week.
A fellow foreign student has been taken into custody for allegedly murdering Nagsen, the Chinese foreign ministry said on Tuesday.
Nagsen, who hailed from Bihar’s Gaya, was a student of Business Administration in the Tianjin Foreign Studies University (TFSU). He was found dead in his dormitory on July 29.
The deceased’s autopsy has been completed and an official from the Indian embassy in Beijing who went to Tianjin, 100km from here, is coordinating with local police and authorities to secure an early release of the body.
Efforts were on to persuade the local police to release the body at the earliest to make arrangements to ship it to India in the coming days.
The transportation of the deceased’s body back to India could cost thousands of dollars.
Several questions about the crime remain unanswered including the motive behind it, the exact time of the incident and whether the university had done - or is doing - enough for the safety and security of foreign students staying on campus.
Indian embassy officials have remained tight-lipped about the case other than responding to a senior BJP leader’s tweet about it.
On Wednesday, the Chinese foreign ministry refused to share more details on the case. “The case is under investigation, and the details cannot be released at the moment,” the Chinese foreign ministry said to HT.
The ministry was responding to a list of questions sent to them by HT on the crime. “Relevant Chinese authorities will handle the case according to law,” the statement said. “As for the repatriation of the body, relevant Chinese authorities will stay in communication with the Indian side and cooperate.”
On Tuesday, the ministry said that Nagsen’s death was a homicide and a foreign student had been arrested in connection with the murder.
The suspect’s nationality has not been disclosed so far.
The transportation of the body back to India will take a while as currently there are no direct flights operating between India and China and it has to be repatriated through a third country, officials said.
China has also tightened travel restrictions in view of the spike in Covid-19 cases in the past few days. “Let them continue the investigation after sending the remains home. We beg the Chinese and Indian authorities,” the deceased’s uncle Pankaj Paswan had said from Gaya on Tuesday.
Despite the serious nature of the crime, which took place on the campus of a reputed university, Chinese media has blanked out the news about the case. Even well-known state-run English outlets like China Daily and the tabloid Global Times seemed to have skipped it until Wednesday night, a week after the incident.
