Justice

Our son didn't deserve to die. Richard was just 19 years old and studying at Archarya NRV School of Architecture in Bangalore (India). On the night of April 17th, his head was smashed by two students from his hostel.

What makes his death so much harder is knowing that we were only informed by the college authority about our son's death the next day at 3.30 pm and the accused Vishal Banerjee (1st year B. Arch student) and Syed Afzal Ali (1st year MBA student), who brutally killed him are still not arrested.

But we hope for justice. We have started a petition asking the Police Commissioner of Bangalore, B. Jyoti Mirji to arrest the accused and file charges against them.

Witnesses have revealed that Syed Afzal Ali repeatedly hit Richard's head and face. The photographic images and preliminary post-mortem report also support this. However, the college authorities are trying to cover up by linking our son's death to a minor accident he had a few days before and drug abuse which is clearly an attempt to defame our loving son.

The support that everyone has shown by organizing protests gives us strength to stand our ground.

CNN-IBN and other news agencies have already reported on the issue, but we need to put more pressure on the Police Commissioner to arrest the accused and put them on trial.

Even though the accused have been booked for murder, they havent been arrested yet. Two weeks have passed, and we are still demanding a fair and transparent investigation.

Please help us in getting justice for our son, Richard – we will be very grateful for your support.

Thank you,
Dr. L Rajesh (Loitam Richard's father)
Dr. RK Vidyabali Devi (Loitam Richard's mother)