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London, Dec. 30: Greater Manchester police on Friday offered a £50,000 reward for information that could lead to the arrest of Anuj Bidve’s killer and apologised after it emerged that the engineering student’s family learnt of his murder from Facebook.
Detective chief superintendent Mary Doyle said: “It is an extremely unusual, savage and motiveless attack, an absolutely horrific crime, which is why we are taking the step of issuing it (the reward) a bit earlier than we normally would.”
The police said a 16-year-old boy and two 17-year-old boys arrested over the murder have been released on bail pending further inquiries. Two men, aged 19 and 20, remain in custody.
Subhash Bidve, the father of the 23-year-old shot dead while walking down a Salford street with friends on December 26, is due to arrive in Manchester early next week.
The family wants Anuj’s body repatriated to their home in Pune so that the funeral can be held without delay. Sadly, early return of the body may not be possible. Even when Dev Anand passed away at the age of 88 from natural causes, it took a whole week before his body could be released to his son, Suneil, for the funeral to be held in London.
With Anuj’s murder, premature return of his body “could harm the prosecution case — and we don’t want that,” a source said.
Subhash Bidve told BBC over phone from Pune that the family got to know of the murder from Facebook. “One of my cousins and one of my nephews, they had seen the message and they called me,” he said, adding he could not understand why the police did not call first because his number was on his son’s mobile phone.
“Last four days we have been feeling so much trauma because we are yet to know when Anuj can come back,” he said. “We are really worried. All family members are worried about it. Everyone at home, they are all shattered and waiting for his remains to do all religious things.”
Asked if getting his son’s body repatriated was his main priority, Subhash Bidve said: “Absolutely. That is my only concern. We do not have a specific date or time frame when it can be done and do not understand it. We find it difficult.”
The police have not yet found the gun used to shoot Anuj nor has anyone been charged with the killing.
If and when that happens, the legal team representing the accused has to be given the chance of organising a second inquest so that the prosecution’s account of how Anuj died is not challenged. In the absence of adequate forensic tests on the body carried on behalf of the defence, the prosecution case “could be undermined — and we certainly don’t want that,” the source said.
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