Hyderabad [India], Feb. 27 : The body of Srinivas Kuchibhotla, as Indian engineer who was shot dead in Kansas in an alleged hate crime, arrived here today, from where it will be taken to his home for final rites.
State Deputy Chief Minister Mahmood Ali was also present at the airport. Police personnel were deployed at the cargo terminal building and Minister of Transport for Telangana, Mahender Reddy was earlier present at the airport but left due to flight's delay.
Kuchibhotla was killed died when 52-year-old Adam Purinton, walked into Austins Bar and Grill in the Kansas City suburb of Olathe and opened fire on Wednesday evening.
Kuchibhotla's friend, Alok Madasani, and Ian Grillot, a bar-goer who tried to intervene in the attack, were also shot, but survived.
Witnesses told local media they heard the suspect yell, "Get out of my country." Meanwhile, the FBI has launched an investigation to determine whether the shooting was a hate crime.
Purinton has been charged with one count of premeditated first-degree murder and two counts of attempted premeditated first-degree murder.
However, the White House has attempted to downplay notions that there was any correlation between the incident and President Donald Trump's stance on immigrants.
Noting that the incident was tragic indeed, White House spokesperson Sean Spicer asserted that it was "absurd" to draw parallels between with the President's rhetoric.
"Obviously, any loss of life is tragic, but I'm not going to get into, like, to suggest that there's any correlation I think is a bit absurd.
So I'm not going to go any further than that," Spicer said. However, the relatives of Kuchibhotla held the recent election of Trump as President as the reason for this incident.
Trump in his run-up to election had made many speeches against immigrants taking jobs of Americans. "This is first time it happened to (my) family; Trump is only the primary reason as of now. A racist person said 'get out of my country' and targeted my brother and his friend," Kuchibhotla's kin told ANI.
Source: ANI
