No One Can Claim Body of Indian Dancer Shot in U.S.

Since 2018, there have been 36 reported murders of Indian students in the United States. Now award-winning Indian classical dancer Amarnath Ghosh, who was pursuing an MFA in Dance from the Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, has became statistic number 37. On Tuesday, the 34-year-old Kolkata native was fatally shot multiple times during an evening walk in the mid-western city. As though this misfortune isn’t bad enough, local authorities are not allowing friends of the deceased to claim the body.

It turns out that Ghosh does not have any next of kin for the police to pass on his remains to. As misfortune would have it, he was an only child and both his parents have passed on. And while it is unclear whether any of his extended family back home have the means or inclination to make the journey to America, his friends have been struggling to gain access to Ghosh’s body. It is possible that forensic personal are still studying it, but it’s already been several days since the murder. With no help forthcoming, Ghosh’s close friend and TV actress Devoleena Bhattacharjee has gone public with the news. 

The distraught Ms. Bhattacharya has even gone as far as to appeal to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s office to intervene in the matter. The celebrity reportedly told the media, “Some friends in the U.S. are trying to claim the body but still no update about it. (There is) no one left in his family to fight for it except his few friends”. She also implored the Indian Embassy to ascertain details of the case and the motive behind the killing. 

Ghosh was an accomplished Bharatnatyam and Kuchipudi dancer who graduated from Chennai’s Kalakshetra Academy while also receiving a National Scholarship. It looks like the expired dancer was caught wrong-footed to say the least and will be joining his parents in the world beyond, premature though that reunion might be.