Bidve killing: Cops to visit India, teenagers bailed

Three teenagers arrested in connection with the murder of Indian student Anuj Bidve in the United Kingdom were on Friday released on bail even as the police apologized to the family that it came to know about the incident not from them but from Facebook.

The UK police also offered a reward of 50,000 pounds to find those linked to the murder and that the investigating team was putting in place plans to send officers to India to offer support to the Bidve family.

A 16-year-old boy and two 17-year-old boys have been released on bail, the police announced.

Five persons were earlier arrested by police on suspicion of murdering Bidve, who was shot in the head in Manchester at close range in an "unprovoked" attack on December 26 on Boxing Day.

The British police investigating the murder apologised that his family learnt of the incident through Facebook rather than from the police.

Responding to remarks of Subhash Bidve, the Pune-based father of the victim, assistant chief constable Dawn Copley said a family liaison officer was deployed soon after the incident but admitted that news of the information was first released on Facebook.

"A Family Liaison Officer was quickly put in place after Anuj's murder who made exhaustive inquiries to try and inform the family and deliver the awful news personally.

Unfortunately, as the officer was attempting to contact the family through the right channels, a post was put on Facebook," Copley said.

"We know that Mr Bidve has spoken to the media about finding out on a social networking site that Anuj had been murdered. Sadly, that was the case. That is not the way anyone should have to find out something so devastating and we completely understand how upset the family are," she added.