Body handed to US friends

Gangtok, April 4: The body of Tshering Rinzing Bhutia, who was among the seven shot dead in a California college on Monday, has been handed over to his friends there, his relatives have said.

Bhutia’s relatives at his hometown Geyzing in West Sikkim said the body would be kept in California for three more days after being embalmed once again before being sent to India.

“Our relatives are in Delhi and are in constant touch with the American embassy there and officials of the ministries of external affairs and home. What we gather is that it will be 10 more days before the body can be brought back here,” said one of Bhutia’s brothers.

Yesterday, the Sikkim government wrote to the ministries of home and external affairs asking them to provide all possible help to the family members of the 38-year-old victim.

Bhutia’s relatives said they were still reeling from the news of his untimely death in a campus shooting. “We are all in shock at the incident that took away such a spirited person from among us,” a relative in Gangtok said.

Bhutia was studying nursing at Oikos University where he had gone in 2005.

The gunman has been identified as a 43-year-old Korean-American, One L. Goh, a former student of the university. He surrendered to the police at a grocery store several miles from the shooting spot. Goh had stolen the keys from Bhutia and had taken his car.(Telegraph)