The body of Ajit Chaudhary, a 22-year-old Indian student who had been missing in Russia for 19 days, has been found. Chaudhary, who was studying medicine at Bashkir State Medical University in Ufa, Russia, was last seen on October 19.
According to reports, Chaudhary had told his friends he was stepping out to buy milk. When he didn't return, his friends and university authorities began a search. The following day, his clothes were discovered on the bank of the White River, which runs near the university campus, raising concerns that he may have been swept away by the river's strong currents, which had been swollen due to recent seasonal rains.
Chaudhary's family, residents of Kafanwada village in the Alwar district of Rajasthan, India, were informed of the devastating news on Thursday afternoon. Alwar Saras Dairy chairman Nitin Sangwan, who accompanied the family to the Union Ministry of External Affairs in New Delhi to seek help in tracing Ajit, confirmed that his body was found in a dam adjacent to the White River. Junior MEA minister Kirti Vardhan Singh intervened, which led to intensified search efforts in Russia. Fellow students identified the body.
The search for Chaudhary began after he went missing on October 19. He had reportedly been missing from his hostel since around 11 p.m., and his mobile phone had been switched off since then. Ajit's uncle, Bhoom Singh, stated that the family received a call from the Russian police on October 20, but the information was unclear.
The family's hopes were pinned on Ajit, who was in his third year of medical studies. They had even sold a portion of their land to fund his education in Russia.
Sangwan stated that Ajit's body would be returned to India after a post-mortem examination and the necessary embassy clearances. A medical board in Russia is expected to conduct the autopsy, and his body will be repatriated to India for his last rites after the procedure, which is expected to take two days.
This incident follows other concerning reports involving Indian nationals in Russia. Recently, families of Indian men have reported that their relatives were tricked into fighting for Russia in the war in Ukraine, lured with false promises of safe jobs. These men were allegedly pressured into signing contracts, sometimes written only in Russian, and deployed to combat zones with little to no military training.
In a separate incident from June 2024, four medical students from Maharashtra drowned in a river near St. Petersburg. These students were enrolled at Yaroslav-the-Wise Novgorod State University.
