Oakland victim’s body arrives

Tshering Rinzing Bhutia

Gangtok, April 10: The body of Tshering Rinzing Bhutia, who was among the seven killed in a California college by a gunman on a shooting rampage earlier this month, will reach Sikkim tomorrow.

Jamyang Namgyal, the 38-year-old victim’s elder brother, said the coffin carrying the embalmed body reached Delhi airport around 3.10pm today.

“The body has been received by a cousin, Karma Bhutia. He will bring the body tomorrow on a flight that is scheduled to arrive in Bagdogra around 12.10pm. I will be there along with other family members to receive the body and bring it to our home in Geyzing. His last rites will take place there on Friday,” the brother said.

The body of the nursing student had been despatched from California on Sunday. “The coffin travelled from California to Atlanta and Chicago and reached Delhi today.”

He said the US government had told another cousin, Karma Sonam Bhutia, who was handed over the body in Oakland, that it had to be despatched as continuous embalming cannot preserve it.

Namgyal said the family had been told by the US authorities that their request for shouldering the embalming and transport cost was being considered. The family had been told that it would take $ 10,000 (Rs 5 lakh) to transport the body to India and the US government would bear half the cost. The other half would have to be borne by the family.

“We have borne the cost as suggested but we have been assured that our request will be considered. Tshering Rinzing was supposed to be home in June and he had told us that he was on the verge of getting American citizenship. He had a Green Card there,” he said.

Namgyal said his brother had gone to the US in 2005.

Tshering Rinzing was killed in a small Christian university in Oakland on April 2. The alleged killer was identified as a 43-year-old Korean-American, One L. Goh. A former student of the university, Goh surrendered to police at a grocery store several miles from the shooting spot. Goh had stolen keys from Bhutia and had taken his car.(Telegraph)