TEARFUL ADIEU

Family members, relatives, friends and people from different walks of life bid a tearful adieu to Indian techie Srinivas Kuchibhotla, who was shot dead in the US on February 22 in a suspected hate crime. His last rites were performed at the cremation ground in Jubilee Hills in Hyderabad on February 28.

K. Madhusudhana Sastry performed the last rites of his son as some of the mourners including the techie's friends were seen carrying placards with slogans like "down with racism".

Union Minister Bandaru Dattatreya, Bharatiya Janata Party General Secretary Muralidhar Rao, other leaders from the BJP, TRS and other parties, and actor couple Jeevitha and Rajasekhar paid their last respects. The body was brought from Kuchibhotla's house in Bachupally, on the city's outskirts. As his final journey began, the engineer's parents were inconsolable while his wife Sunayana Dumala, who arrived with the mortal remains on Monday night, broke down as she had his last glimpse.

The body was brought by a cargo flight while Sunayana, her brother, sister-in-law and another relative reached by a passenger flight. Mourners poured in at his residence through the night and into the morning to pay their last respects.