"Coffin would take up space for 8-10 students": Karnataka MLA on student killed in Ukraine

Arvind Bellad, Hubballi-Dharwad West MLA, said the government’s focus is on ensuring stranded students in war-torn Ukraine return home safety rather than bringing back the mortal remains of Naveen SG, the 21-year-old medico who was killed in Kharkiv on Tuesday.The Hubbali-Dharwad MLA, Arvind Bellad, made the statement in the context of uncertainty over bringing back the remains of Naveen Shekharappa Gyanagoudar, the student who was killed in shelling in Ukraine.“A coffin would occupy the seats of 8 to 10 students in the plane,” Bellad said. “Therefore, the priority is on evacuating the medical students stranded in the war-hit nation and bring them back alive.”

The MLA, however, said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself was trying to ensure that Gyanagoudar’s body returned to India. The student hailed from Haveri district in Karnataka. Gyanagoudar was killed on Tuesday in shelling in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv after he left the bunker where he had been sheltering with other Indians to get food.His father Shekarappa said that the government had assured him that his son’s body would be brought back to India within two days, according to NDTV. He said that he urged Modi and Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai to help bring back his son’s body. Naveen was India’s first tragic casualty in the ongoing military offensive in Ukraine. He died when he stepped out of a bunker to fetch food.