Ranchi, Jan 25 (IANS) The family of Abhijit Mahato, the 29-year-old student from Jharkhand who was murdered in the US, is anxiously waiting for the arrival of his body.
Sitaram Mahato, Abhijeet’s distraught father, told IANS: “We have no demand from anyone. We only want his dead body.”
Abhjit was the only son of the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) employee. The slain student’s grandfather Dhananjay Mahato is a former legislator.
Abhijit’s brother-in-law Soumitra Mahato said: “We have received a fax and an e-mail from Indian authorities in the United States that Abhijit’s body will reach Ranchi Saturday.”
From Ranchi, the body will be taken to Jamshedpur where Abhijit’s parents stay.
Abhijit was a doctoral student at Duke University at Durham in North Carolina. His bullet-riddled body was found Jan 18 night in his apartment near the campus.
Durham police Wednesday charged 19-year-old Stephen Lavance Oates Junior, a local resident, with murder and robbery with a dangerous weapon in connection with Abhijit’s death.
Abhijit did his Bachelor in Engineering (BE) from Jadavpur University in Kolkata and M. Tech. from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur. He worked at GE Global Research Centre in Bangalore for two years before joining Duke about two years ago.