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Naveen Shekharappa, the 21-year-old MBBS student in Kharkiv, Ukraine lost his life on 1st March. He was out to buy something from a nearby store when Russian soldiers blew up a government building. Naveen, the younger son of a retired paper mill employee hailed from Chalageri in Karnataka. His father Shekharappa said, “We had BIG dreams for our son. Those are now shattered,” He said that his son had scored 97% in his medical college entrance exam. Shekharappa said, “I found out that I would have to spend Rs 85 lakh and Rs 1 crore to put him in a private medical college in Karnataka. In India to get admission in a government college where fees are less is very very difficult. The system is hopeless. There is a caste based reservation and donation problem. That’s when I decided to send him to Ukraine as it is cheaper to study there and I won't have to give a donation. Because of this, intelligent students have to go out of the country to study.” Shekharappa said he had borrowed money from his friends and relatives to send Naveen to Ukraine to study. Shekharappa urged the Indian government to put strict rules to stop donations in private colleges so that smart students can study. Naveen lived with some friends in an apartment. He would call home five to six times a day since the fighting started and had moved to a bunker below the flat. Naveen had told his father that he was “trying to somehow leave Kharkiv“. On the day of his death, Naveen went out to buy food and said he will call later. However, that call never came. His father, Shekharappa, kept calling his phone but got no response. There was a travelling problem - Naveen was 100 km from the border. The students were worried, and approached the embassy in Ukraine, but said they did not get a proper response from the embassy. When Shekharappa finally got a call; it was the Ministry of External Affairs, informing him about his son's death in Russian shelling. Later he also received calls from PM Modi and Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai. The father requested everybody to bring his body home. They said they would arrange for the body to be flown back within two days. Naveen’s elder brother said that he would have finished his exam in June and would have started an internship. “Who could have imagined we would lose him permanently?” Follow us for all the latest News & Entertainment and to keep up-to date on all the happenings at ISH News: Facebook: Twitter: Instagram: Official Site: Thanks for watching!! Favourites, Likes, Feedbacks & Shares are always appreciated.
