British police on Wednesday arrested a fourth person on suspicion of shooting dead an Indian student in Manchester in northwest England. Greater Manchester Police said they had detained the man on suspicion of murdering 23-year-old Anuj Bidve, who was shot in the head at close range on Monday.
A 16-year-old boy, a 17-year-old boy and a man were earlier arrested over the shooting on Tuesday. All four are now in custody. Bidve, from the western Indian city of Pune, was killed as he walked with friends from his hotel in Salford, an area to the west of Manchester, towards the city centre.
“There is obviously speculation about why this young man was killed,” senior police officer Kevin Mulligan said on Tuesday in response to claims the murder may have been racially motivated. “But at this stage it would be wrong to rule anything out or comment on that speculation while the investigation is in its infancy.”
In a statement issued through Manchester police, Bidve’s family said his death had left “a Bidve, a postgraduate micro-electronics student at Lancaster University, around 40 miles (60 kilometres) from Manchester, was enjoying a short break in the north-western city with eight Indian friends.