By IANS,
Hyderabad : The body of an Andhra Pradesh girl student, who was murdered in Birmingham in Britain earlier this month, Saturday reached her home town Vijayawada.
Nearly three weeks after she was allegedly murdered by her room mate, V.S. Jyothirmayi’s body was taken from the airport here to Vijayawada, about 300 km away, by road.
The body was brought here by KL873 flight from Amsterdam, which landed at 2 a.m. The girl’s paternal uncle V. Kanaka Durga Prasad received the body.
The mortal remains were taken to Vijayawada in a special vehicle sent by Krishna district collector along with police escort.
Her parents, sister and other family members broke down as soon as the body reached home. Hundreds of relatives and friends gathered to catch a glimpse of the body. The last rites will be performed Saturday evening.
Jyothirmayi, 23, a postgraduate student in public health at Wolverhampton University, was found murdered in her apartment on the outskirts of Birmingham May 6.
24-year-old N. Nagraju Kumar, who hails from Andhra Pradesh and shared the apartment with her, was found in an injured condition.
Two days later, the West Midlands police arrested Kumar on charges of murder. He allegedly inflicted injuries on himself to mislead the police.
The murder remained a mystery with Kumar’s parents claiming they got a telephone call from his friends after the incident, saying some people had broken into the house and attacked them.
The girl’s family had to wait for long to get the body as investigators conducted two autopsies and completed other formalities.
The coroner’s court in Birmingham last week released the body, which was handed over to the Indian consulate, which passed it over to the European Telugu Association (ETA).
The ETA made all arrangements to send the body to India. The Andhra Pradesh government paid 3,300 pounds (about Rs.270,000) to a private agency in Birmingham to embalm the body and send it to India.
A delegation of Wolverhampton University officials has reached Vijayawada to take part in the funeral.
Three representatives of the university last week met the parents of the girl to offer condolences on behalf of the university authorities.
They also announced that they would refund the fee paid by the student. After the funeral, the university officials will hand over the cheque.
Jyothirmayi had taken admission in the university in September last year and her parents said they spent Rs.600,000 towards her fee.