Fifth arrest over student's murder

Dec 29 2011

A fifth person has been arrested by police investigating the fatal shooting of an Indian student.

Anuj Bidve, 23, was gunned down at point-blank range as he walked with friends near their hotel in Salford, Greater Manchester, in the early hours of Boxing Day.

Greater Manchester Police said that a 20-year-old man was arrested in the early hours of Thursday.

A 16-year-old boy, two boys aged 17 and a 19-year-old man are also being held on suspicion of murder.

Mr Bidve was in a group of nine male and female Indian students visiting Manchester for a short break over the Christmas holidays.

Police said the students, who had not been drinking, were walking from their hotel towards the city centre and became aware of two men on the other side of the street.

The gunman, a white male in his 20s who was wearing a grey top, walked across the road and engaged the victim in a short conversation before producing the gun and shooting the student at close range to the side of the head.

The killer then ran back across the street before the pair fled on foot towards Asgard Drive and the Ordsall housing estate.

Mr Bidve collapsed to the ground and died in hospital a short time later. He was studying for a micro-electronics postgraduate qualification at Lancaster University, and was described by tutors as "an outstanding applicant at the very beginning of a promising career".

His family in Pune, Maharashtra, said they had "lost faith in everything" as they struggle to come to terms with the tragedy.