Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai has said that bringing back the body of Naveen S. Gyanagoudar to India was no less than a miracle, and Karnataka is thankful to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for making it happen.
“Identifying the remains of the medical student, preserving it and shipping it back to India, all in the midst of a war, was very difficult. But Mr Modi achieved it. This task shows the respect he enjoys in international levels,’’ he told journalists in Chalageri, the native village of the Gyanagoudar family.
“Under the directions of S. Jaishankar, foreign affairs ministers, senior officers remained in constant contact with the Russian and Ukrainian authorities, and shifted the body from the war zone to a cold freezer,” he said. When the PM spoke to the bereaved family, he had promised to bring back the body, and he has kept the promise, said Mr. Bommai.
He said that under Operation Ganga, the Union Government had brought back 19,000 students from Ukraine, including 572 from Karnataka. “Of them, 61 had arrived before Operation Ganga,’’ he said.
The CM placed a wreath on the body. He consoled Naveen’s mother Vijayalakshmi, father Shekharappa Gyanagoudar, and brother Harsha.
Earlier in the day, the CM had received the body in Bengaluru before it was taken to Chalageri, officials said.
Body donated for education and research
The parents of Naveen have donated his body to a private medical college in Davangere for medical education and research. The body was kept in front of Shekharappa’s house before being sent to Davangere.
