Slain techie’s mom issued passport in 45 minutes

MANGALURU: The parents of Udupi-based Prashant Basarur and wife Smita — who were attacked with a knife in Munich, leaving the husband dead three days ago — will leave for Germany on Tuesday after Bengaluru’s Regional Passport Office renewed the slain engineer’s mother’s passport in record time.

Sources said the passport of Vinaya, 73, mother of Prashant Basarur, was reissued in under 45 minutes on Monday.

This follows TOI’s report — ‘Parents set to leave for Germany’ — on April 1 that explained the efforts of former MP K Jayaprakash Hegde to get Vinaya’s passport renewed so that she could travel to Germany along with Smita’s parents, Dr Chandramouli and Vidya.

Prashant and Smita, who shifted to Germany 18 years ago, were attacked allegedly by a 33-year-old man from Guinea, who lived in the same apartment complex as the Basarurs. Smita is said to be out of danger.

MP mailed Swaraj

Besides sending a mail to external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj, Hegde accompanied Vinaya to the passport office. Swaraj, in a tweet, lauded RPO Bharath Kumar Kuthati for quick action and said: “This is the way to work. We owe this to our citizens.”

Hegde said he later took Vinaya to the German consulate to complete visa formalities, besides helping her buy travel insurance. “The families are likely to take a Tuesday evening flight to Germany,” he said.

The passport office was quick to complete the biometrics, capture her photograph, print the passport, laminate it and hand it over to the applicant. Hegde thanked Swaraj, the passport office and the German consulate, Bengaluru, for expediting the process.

Prashant’s friend Ganesh, from Byndoor in Udupi district and who was here on a vacation, will return to Germany with the Basarurs’ families. Ganesh helped the family in filling forms.

Consulate promises help

The German consulate assured the grief-stricken families all help till they step out of the airport. “The family is in trauma. The pleasure is not in just winning elections, it’s also in helping people,” Hegde said.