UK cops to meet Anuj Bidve's family in India 

London, Jan 1: Two officials of the Greater Manchester Police are scheduled to fly to India to meet the family of Indian student Anuj Bidve, who was killed in an unprovoked attack on Boxing Day in Salford.

The investigating team have not yet recovered the murder weapon with which a gunman shot 23-year-old Bidve in the head after a brief conversation in the Ordsall area of Salford on December 26.

Two persons are currently under arrest while a reward of 50,000 pounds has been announced to trace the killer. The Bidve family is expected to arrive in Manchester next week to take the victim's body back to India for final rites.

Assistant Chief Constable Dawn Copley said: "Our family liaison officers are in regular contact with Anuj's family but passing information and updates over the phone is not the best way to communicate in such difficult and tragic circumstances".

"It is important to me personally, and Greater Manchester Police, to have someone from the force meet with Anuj's family at the earliest opportunity and help support them at this time," she said.

"Having conversations face-to-face is absolutely the right thing to do. We will of course also provide whatever support we can throughout the family's forthcoming trip to the UK," the official added Chief Superintendent Russ Jackson and a family liaison officer will meet Bidve's family in India.

Earlier, Subhash Bidve, the victim's Pune-based father, expressed his dismay that the family learnt of the incident from Facebook rather than from the police. The police is treating the incident as a hate crime "based on the growing perceptions within the community".

PTI