20-year-old Indian student found dead in his university hostel room in China

Beijing: A 20-year-old Indian student was found dead under mysterious circumstances in his university room in the city of Tianjin, around 100km south of Beijing, last week

The body of Aman Nagsen was found by the staff of Tianjin Foreign Studies University (TFSU) on Thursday.

Aman Nagsen, who was enrolled for the International Business Studies course and was from Gaya in Bihar, had turned 20 in June.

University authorities informed Nagsen’s family members about his death early on Friday.

The cause of death is under investigation.

Nagsen’s family last spoke to him on July 23 after which he did not respond to calls or messages and did not accept a money transfer via a mobile app.

Last week, worried family members got in touch with Nagsen’s local guardian in Beijing who in turn got in touch with TFSU authorities, persuading them to look him up.

That was when Nagsen’s body was found.

“We were informed about the death of my nephew by the university at 1am in the intervening night of July 29th and 30th. After that we have not received any official communication,” the deceased’s uncle Pankaj Paswan said from Gaya.

A distraught Paswan said the family has urgently requested the Indian government through the external affairs ministry to help in getting Nagsen’s body back in India. “We request both the Indian and Chinese governments to help in sending the body back to India,” he said.

The 20-year-old was in good health and had no history of any major illness.

Paswan added that a demonstration was organised by a group of students in Gaya to demand the quick return of Nagsen’s remains.

The cause of Nagsen’s death wasn’t immediately clear though the fact that he didn’t communicate with his family for six days raises questions about the time of his demise and the circumstances leading to it.

It was learnt that officials from the Indian embassy in Beijing are working on repatriating Nagsen’s remains to India and are in touch with authorities in Tianjin.

An autopsy is likely to be conducted before the body is released to be taken back to India.

The embassy had responded to a tweet by Bihar’s BJP chief, Sanjay Jaiswal, about the death of the student on July 30, saying it was in communication with Chinese authorities and the deceased’s family and was “providing all possible assistance”.

The news of Nagsen’s death was being shared among social media groups involving Indians with links to China and many have requested the Indian embassy to urgently look into the matter.

Nagsen was among the few Indian students to have remained in China following the Covid-19 outbreak here.

The vast majority of around 23,000 Indian students studying here had returned to India by themselves or via evacuation flights in 2020.

They have not been able to return to China because of the ban on the return of foreign students imposed by Beijing because of the Covid-19 pandemic.