The Government of India will render all assistance and help to the Indian students at Virginia Tech University and to the family of Professor G V Loganathan, who was among the 33 killed in the worst massacre in the history of the United States, an embassy official on his way to Blacksburg said.
Krishan Varma, minister, at the Indian embassy in Washington,DC and the head of consular office, told rediff.com, "The whole idea is to go there and get a first-hand assessment of what is happening -- what kind of help and support they need and if there's anything we can help as Government of India's embassy, we'd like to do that."
Loganathan, 51, who hails from Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu, an alumnus of the Madras University, the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, and Purdue University, from where he received his bachelor's, master's degrees and PhD respectively, was a professor in the university's Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, for the past 15 years, and was killed in the campus' Norris Hall of the Engineering Building by a lone gunman, who has now been identified as Cho Seung-hui, 23, a South Korean student who was a resident alien or green-card holder, who was a third year student at the University majoring in English.
Although the university authorities have still not released the names of those killed on April 16 when Cho went on a rampage, Loganathan's family had been informed he was one of the victims, and according to a neighbor Ranjana Chachra, "The family was informed by the authorities and condolences were paid by friends and students at their residence on the campus."
Also feared to be among those dead is an Indian student, Minal Panchal, who has also been missing since the shootout.
Besides, his wife, Loganathan, who is also survived by two daughters, was considered one of the department's top ten professors and only last year had received his another award for excellence in teaching, adding to the kudos in terms of numerous awards and accolades he has received during his 15-year tenure at the university.
Varma told rediff.com that "of course, we'll extend whatever help and courtesies we can give his wife and daughters and so we are also going to meet up with them and see that whatever they require -- we'll be on the spot to give them whatever help they need."
He acknowledged that since he was a senior professor at the University and had been living in the US for nearly three decades, both the university and state authorities as well as federal authorities would be also on hand to render his family any assistance they require. "But ours is a good faith effort to make sure they have everything they need, absolutely. And, as you know, the parents and anybody else and anything they want us to help with (in terms of their travel to the US and other arrangements)."
Varma said, the government of India through its embassy in Washington stood ready to accede to whatever the wishes of the family are.
Earlier, there had been reports that the Ministry of External Affairs had expressed its willingness to bring Loganathan's body back to India.
