UK university setting up scholarship in Bidve's memory

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Anuj Bidve's alma mater, Lancaster University is setting up a scholarship in memory of the Indian student whose killing in an unprovoked attack in the UK evoked widespread sympathy and outrage.

"The scholarship is a fitting and lasting way of remembering Anuj, who was an outstanding student," said Lancaster University's vice-chancellor Professor Mark E Smith.

Bidve, 23, was studying engineering at Lancaster when he was killed in Salford on December 26.

The annual scholarship will fund an engineering MSc for a student graduating from the University of Pune in India, where Bidve studied.

The scholarship, which is for fees and accommodation, has been agreed in line with the wishes of Bidve's family, the BBC reported.

The university said it hoped the first student to receive the award would come to Lancaster in October 2012.

Bidve was on a visit to Manchester with a group of university friends when he was shot in the head at close range as he walked along Ordsall Lane.

He is due to appear at Manchester Crown Court in March. A 20-year-old youth called 'Psycho Stapleton' has been charged with Anuj's murder and remanded in custody until a plea and case management hearing on March 20.

Three other people arrested on suspicion of Anuj's murder have been granted bail until March pending further inquiries.

A fourth man, aged 19, had his bail cancelled. Bidve, a postgraduate student of Microelectronics at the university, was shot in the head at close range, a day after Christmas, as he walked along Ordsall Lane with friends in Greater Manchester.