Naveen S Gyanagoudar, the 21-year-old medical student who died in Russian shelling in Ukraine‘s Kharkiv, had left his bunker to exchange currency and buy food, his uncle Ujjanagouda said. Hours earlier, he called up his father to say there was no food and water in the bunker, Ujjanagouda said. According to student coordinator Pooja Praharaj soon after the attack, a Ukrainian woman picked up Gyanagoudar’s phone and said its owner was shifted to a morgue.
“He stayed near the governor’s house and was in queue for food. Suddenly there was an air strike that blew up the governor’s house and he was killed,” Praharaj told a news channel. The Gyanagoudars’ Chalageri residence slipped into gloom on receiving the news of death of their child in a faraway country. A large number of people thronged the house to console the bereaved family. His father Shekharappa Gyanagoudar said no one from the Indian embassy reached out to stranded students in Kharkiv.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke to Shekharappa Gyanagoudar and offered his condolences. Chief minister Basavaraj Bommai too spoke with Gyanagoudar and said he would make every effort to bring his son’s mortal remains back. The bereaved father told Bommai that his son used to call him every morning and at least twice more daily. The students were planning to go to the railway station. MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said the ministry was in touch with the family.
According to Manoj Rajan, Karnataka’s nodal officer overseeing evacuation of students from Ukraine, 454 students from Karnataka were stranded and 37 had returned. The news of the death sent shockwaves among parents from Chalageri whose children are in Kharkiv. Srinivas, whose son Praveen is in Ukraine, appealed to Modi to bring back the students from Kharkiv, which was close to the Russian border.
“My son and others are in the bunker. They say that they will survive only if they are brought back. Let our PM speak to both sides and ensure a ceasefire till our children return. Such an effort is required, but no one is doing it,” Srinivas said. Another parent, Sridhar Krishna Murthy, was upset that BJP MP Shivakumar Udasi did not pick up calls. Udasi, however, said he had told the parents that he had spoken to their wards. Murthy said there were three students from Chalageri in Ukraine. “We don’t know what condition they are in. If they return, we will be thankful. We have left it to God to protect our children,” Murthy said.
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