The mortal remains of Indian student Naveen Shekarappa Gyanagaudar, who died due to Russian shelling in Ukraine will finally be brought back to India on Monday, after the completion of a long and cumbersome process of securing a body in a war-torn country and then transporting it back home.
On March 1, when the news of Naveen getting killed in Kharkiv trickled in, the Karnataka State Disaster Management immediately shot into action. The body went through its database to establish contact with the family and at the same time provide necessary details to Ministry of External Affairs.
Then began the challenging process of securing the body. “Officers at the highest level were involved, hundreds of messages were exchanged, we established contact in Kharkiv and ensured that the body was embalmed and kept safely in a mortuary. All this even as the war was raging on in the city,” Karnataka Disaster Management Authority Commissioner Manoj Rajan told News18.
Soon, the MEA appointed a funeral agent to take possession of Naveen’s mortal remains. The funeral agent then travelled to Kharkiv and took possession of the mortal remains after completing necessary paperwork.
The body was then transported to Warsaw in Poland. The Indian embassy in Poland and the funeral agent had to once again finish additional paperwork to transport the body to India. The ongoing pandemic added to the delay with additional requirement of establishing that the mortal remains wasn’t that of a person who had died due to Covid-19, along with other documentation to establish the cause of death.
Naveen’s final journey started from Warsaw in an Emirates flight on Saturday and the body will reach the Kempegowda International Airport in Bengaluru at 3 AM on Monday. The family has already decided to donate the body to S.S. Institute of Medical Sciences and Research centre in Davangere.
A fourth year medical student in Kharkiv city, Naveen was killed when he ventured out of his bunker to get some food, water and exchange money. The 22-year-old student from Chalageri village in Ranebennur Taluk of Haveri in Karnataka was the second son of Shekarappa Gyanagouda.
Gyanagouda has been demanding his son’s body to be brought to India for final rites.
Shekarappa had said on Friday said that he was saddened as the process of bringing back the body of his son from Ukraine was delayed. “Now, the sadness has gone away after learning that we will be able to see his body for the last time,” he said.
The body is reaching the Chalageri village on Monday, he said. After performing the final rites, the family has decided to donate the body to the SS Medical College of Davanagere, he added. The decision has been taken to enable the medical college students with their studies, he said.
Naveen’s mother Vijayalakshmi has also thanked authorities for bringing back the body of her son, saying this has bought some closure.
The state government has extended Rs 25 lakh compensation to his family.
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