London: Three teenagers arrested in
connection with the murder of Indian student Anuj Bidve in the
UK were on Friday, released on bail even as the police apologised
to the family that it came to know about the incident not from
them but from Facebook.
The UK police also offered a reward of 50,000 pounds to
find those linked to the murder and that the investigating
team was putting in place plans to send officers to India to
offer support to the Bidve family.
A 16-year-old boy and two 17-year-old boys have been
released on bail, the police announced.
Five persons were earlier arrested by police on suspicion
of murdering Bidve, 23, who was shot in the head in Manchester
at close range in an "unprovoked" attack on December 26 on
Boxing Day.
The British police investigating the murder apologised
that his family learnt of the incident through Facebook rather
than from the police.
Responding to remarks of Subhash Bidve, the Pune-based
father of the victim, assistant chief constable Dawn Copley
said a family liaison officer was deployed soon after the
incident but admitted that news of the information was first
released on Facebook.
"A Family Liaison Officer was quickly put in place
after Anuj`s murder who made exhaustive inquiries to try and
inform the family and deliver the awful news personally.
Unfortunately, as the officer was attempting to contact the
family through the right channels, a post was put on
Facebook," Copley said.
"We know that Mr Bidve has spoken to the media about
finding out on a social networking site that Anuj had been
murdered. Sadly, that was the case. That is not the way anyone
should have to find out something so devastating and we
completely understand how upset the family are," she added.
PTI
