Friends raise $25K for shifting body

Donors opened their purses to fund the transport of the body of Warangal student Sharath Koppu home on Friday. Sharat was shot dead in a restaurant in Kansas city.

His cousin, Mr Raghu Chowdavaram, set out an appeal on GoFundMe, which raised $25,000 in three hours. Mr Chowdavaram, said in his appeal: “This could have been another beautiful life story but came to an abrupt closure.”

Talking to this newspaper, Mr Sandeep Vemulakonda, a cousin of Sharath, said the family had started collecting funds and stopped when it reached the target. He said the money was donated by Sharath’s friends in the US out of a “community feeling”.

He said the crowdfunding was to cover costs like flight charges, documentation and other subsidiary charges to transport the body.

Mr Vemulakonda said Mr Chowdavaram had travelled about eight hours to reach Kansas and was the first to contact the officials about getting Sharath’s body.

The University of Missouri said in a statement: “We are deeply saddened that Sharath Koppu, a graduate student in Computer Science at UMKC, was killed last evening during an armed robbery at a restaurant where he was assisting family friends. We offer our sincere sympathies to Sharath’s family and friends in the wake of this senseless tragedy. Our campus leadership is reaching out to Sharath’s family and friends and we are making counselling services available to members of our university community.”