BENGALURU: Even as the family of Abhishek Sudesh Bhat, a student of Mysuru, who was shot dead in California, was struggling to cope with the tragedy, they had to deal with the struggle of bringing his body back home. While the late 25-year-old’s father Sudesh Chand and mother Nandini Aithal have passports with US visa stamp on them, his younger brother Abhishreshta Bhat’s passport was on the verge of expiry. He did not have a visa too. However, the passport issue was sorted out in 90 minutes on Monday at the Regional Passport Office at Koramangala, thanks to Mysuru MP Pratap Simha and the Regional Passport Officer Bharat Kunar Kuthati.
Srivatsa S Bhat, the cousin of Abhishek, expressed his gratitude to the MP and the team responsible for such quick passport delivery. “Abhishreshta is leaving by train on Monday night to Chennai to get the visa stamping done at the US Consulate. After the receipt of passport, they called up the Consulate and got an emergency appointment for the visa,” he told The New Indian Express.
“My cousin called us and told us that passport renewal was a smooth and quick affair at Bengaluru. As a family, we are relieved and extremely grateful to the MP for promising to help us and delivering his words so quickly,” he added. Regional Passport Officer of Bengaluru Bharat Kumar Kuthati said that Abhishreshta was asked to come over as soon as the office opened at 9.30 am.
“We received a communication from the MP’s office seeking help and we assured it would be done within 90 minutes. By 11 am, we handed him a renewed passport. We eased certain restrictions in order to help them at the earliest,” he said.In case of minors who need a passport, parents need to fill up an Annexure D as well as sign the scanned version of the filled-up application form. “We decided to relax it so that he could get the passport quickly,” he added.Asked if it was the quickest processing done, the RPO said that they have issued passports even within 50 minutes in the past in case of genuine emergencies.