New Delhi: The distraught family of 21-year-old Naveen Shekharappa Gyanagoudar, the Indian medical student who died in Kharkiv Tuesday amid Russia’s war on Ukraine, has asked the Indian government to expedite repatriation of his body before it decomposes, so they can perform his last rites.
Naveen’s elder brother Harsha, 25, told ThePrint over the phone Wednesday that their parents are grief-stricken, and are waiting to say goodbye.
The family lives in Chalageri, a village located in Haveri district of Karnataka.
“My parents have been crying since yesterday. They are waiting to perform the religious rites — to say goodbye. By this time, some water must have been released from the body and it must be starting to decompose, so we have asked the government to accelerate efforts to bring him back,” said Harsha.
He also urged the Indian government to step up coordination with local authorities in Kharkiv to evacuate Naveen’s college mates, many of whom are still hiding out in underground bunkers in the city.
Kharkiv lies just north of eastern Ukraine’s Donbass region near the Russian border, where heavy fighting is taking place.
Since last week, around 3,500 Indian students enrolled at Kharkiv National Medical University, where Naveen was a student, have been hiding out in underground bunkers of hostels a few kilometres away from their university with limited food and water supplies.
Naveen died in shelling early Tuesday when a strike hit an administrative building in Kharkiv, while he was buying groceries nearby.
His death rattled many Indian students still in underground bunkers. As the Ministry of External Affairs Tuesday confirmed Naveen’s death Tuesday, some Indian students, stranded in various parts of Ukraine, had also started moving towards the country’s western regions — bordering countries such as Hungary, Slovakia, and Poland — in an attempt to leave the war-torn nation on their own.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke to Naveen’s father Shekhar Gouda Tuesday, after Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai expressed shock over the student’s death.
The Indian government is working on bringing back Indian nationals stranded in Ukraine, but the complete breakdown of public transport and threat of air raids at any time has complicated evacuation efforts.
Out of around 20,000 Indians stuck in Ukraine, over 6,000 have been safely repatriated, Union Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan said Wednesday, adding that the government is trying to evacuate Indians through Romania, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and Moldova.
Also Read: Sounds of bombing, crowded basements, no food — Indian students stuck in Ukraine recount horror
‘My father wanted at least one son to be a doctor’
Naveen’s family has been living in Chalageri for the past two years, following his father’s retirement. Before that, they lived in Mysuru for 6-7 years when his father Shekhar Gouda was working as a mechanical engineer at South India Paper Mills Ltd, a paper plant in the town of Nanjangud. Naveen and Harsha’s mother Vijayalaxmi is a homemaker.
Harsha, who is pursuing a PhD in agriculture, explained that when his father retired and decided to move back to the village, he wanted at least one of his sons to be a doctor, who could give back to the community.
“My father always wanted one person in the family to be a doctor so that they could give back to the village and other rural areas in some way. This was Naveen’s dream too. He was very ambitious,” he added.
Harsha further said that the news of Naveen’s death has worsened his mother’s health. “My mother has always been physically fragile and weak, but after hearing the news of my brother’s death, she finds it hard to walk or talk. She sleeps all day,” he said.
(Edited by Gitanjali Das)
Also Read: ‘Pitiful’ Ukrainians and a dreadful journey: What evacuated Indian students saw & felt