Body of medical student killed in Armenia reaches MP's Rewa after 14 days

Bhopal, Sep 10 (IANS) The body a 27-year-old medical student -- Ashutosh Dwivedi, who was allegedly killed in Armenia on the intervening night of August 27-28 -- reached his hometown Madhya Pradesh's Rewa district on Saturday.

Dwivedi's family members received the body at the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport in Delhi at 2:30 am on Saturday following which it was taken to Rewa by an ambulance.

As per reports, Dwivedi's body was found by the police in Yerevan, the capital of Armenia, on August 28 from near a shop located in an area called DeWitt Beck Street. Reports said that the Armenian police have arrested a 45-year-old man named Balwinder Singh in connection with Dwivedi's murder.

A family member told IANS that the body reached the village located under Tenothar town in Rewa district at around 3:30 pm on Saturday. The aggrieved family members waited for 14 days to recieve the body after they got information regarding the murder of Ashutosh from the Indian Embassy in Armenia on August 28.

The family members of the deceased confirmed that all expenses to bring back the body from Armenia to Delhi and then to the village were borne by the Madhya Pradesh government.

"We are grateful to Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan for helping us bring the body. We are also grateful to the officials and the state administration and the Indian Embassy, who helped us a lot during this tough time," said Rakesh Tiwari, Deivedi's cousin.

The last rights were performed later on Saturday evening.

However, the family is yet know the exact reason behind the death of Ashutosh, who was a forth year medical student in Armenia.

His father, who is a teacher at a government school in Rewa, had requested the state government to provide financial help to bring back the body of his son, as the family was unable to bear the expenses, IANS had reported on September 1.

BJP MLA from Tenothar Assembly, Shyamlal Dwivedi, had also written to the Chief Minister's Office (CMO) to provide financial assistance to the family for brining the body back home. The family had taken loan to help Dwivedi pursue his medical education in Armenia.