Briton charged with Bidve's murder, to appear before court

London, Jan 2: A 20-year-old Briton has been charged with the murder of the Indian student Anuj Bidve, who was shot in the head in Salford on Boxing Day in an unprovoked incident.

Kiaran Stapleton, from the Ordsall area, has been charged with the murder and will appear before the City of Manchester Magistrates' Court today, the police said, adding that the investigation was continuing.

Bidve(23) was shot in the head at point-blank range as he walked with friends near their hotel in the inner-city Ordsall district of Greater Manchester in the early hours of December 26. A team of the Greater Manchester Police has travelled to Pune to meet the family of the victim, who was a postgraduate student of Microelectronics at Lancaster University. The 50,000 pounds reward is still on offer for information.

Assistant Chief Constable Dawn Copley, told a news conference last evening: "This remains a complex investigation and the fact we have charged someone does not mean the investigation is complete". "As such, we are still asking for the public to contact us with any information they may have and there remains a 50,000-pound reward outstanding. We know that the family are extremely distressed that Anuj's body has not been released to them," she said.

The police, Copley added, was in close contact with the coroner who was "anxious" to release Anuj's body to his family at the earliest possible time. Bidve's family members are scheduled to arrive in Manchester this week to repatriate the body to India for final rites. The Indian High Commission is providing facilitation for the process.

PTI