A 21-year-old youngster from Nampally, Hyderabad drowned in a river in Ukraine on Saturday. Jaspreet Singh Bhatia had gone swimming in Feofania Park when the incident happened.  

Jaspreet was studying second-year BBA in Amity University, Mumbai. 

According to his family, he left to Ukraine in June for an internship. As he was returning to India on Monday to celebrate his birthday with his family, he went along with four of his friends to the river. However, as he didn’t know how to swim, he drowned, said his uncle Jagjith Singh.  

“Today, he was supposed to return, and celebrate his birthday. He had his tickets booked and his parents were eagerly waiting for his arrival... We are extremely pained by the incident,” said Jagjith Singh.

Jaspreet is the eldest son of Rajender Pal Singh Bhatia and Jaspreet Kaur.

Jaspreet’s family lament that there has been a delay by the Indian embassy in retrieving his body, and have approached K T Rama Rao, TRS working president and son of the Telangana chief minister, through Twitter, for his intervention to expedite the process of bringing his body back. KTR has responded positively.

Sorry for your loss. My office @KTRoffice will get in touch with you to get the mortal remains asap https://t.co/egRlU02qNG

— KTR (@KTRTRS) August 11, 2019

“Jaspreet’s college has already sent a letter to the embassy in Delhi. They are yet to process it and send it to the Ukraine embassy. We want his body back as soon as possible. It would be great if KTR takes up the issue with the Indian embassy on priority,” Jagjith said.

Meanwhile, on Sunday, state minority commission chairman Mohammed Qamaruddin visited Jaspreet’s home, and assured all possible help from the government.

In July last month, a techie from Visakhapatnam working in the USA, had drowned in a like while partying. The victim went to Lake Hopatcong on a rented boat along with his friends to celebrate his birthday. He jumped into the lake but couldn’t come out reportedly after his legs got entangled in the weed.