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Moscow hostel fire: A year on, still no justice for victims

The family alleged negligence on the part of the university officials in ensuring the safety of its students, and is facing a lot of trauma due to the lack of action on part of the authorities

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Karishma Bhosale and Pooja Kallur
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A year after Pooja Kallur, a medical student from Seawoods, was killed in a fire at a medical college in Moscow, her family and friends are still running from pillar to post to get her justice.

22-year-old Kallur was a fourth year student at the Smolensk State Medical University in Moscow. At around 4 am on February 14, 2016, Pooja and her roommate Karishma Bhosale were sleeping in their hostel room when a fire broke out in the next room spreading quickly to their room. Pooja and Karishma were the only two students declared dead amongst the 200 students staying in the college hostel. They died of suffocation. All the other students were successfully evacuated or admitted to the nearest hospital with minor injuries.

"She enrolled herself in the 6- year MBBS programme in 2012 and would have completed the course in the next two years. We do not have a doctor in the family and had great hopes and expectations from her. We are all feeling helpless now," said Mayur Kallur, Pooja's brother.

The family alleged negligence on the part of the university officials in ensuring the safety of its students, and is facing a lot of trauma due to the lack of action on part of the authorities.

"A year later, nothing seems to have changed. We had written to the Indian Embassy in Russia asking them to take action against the college as there were a lot of security concerns raised by Indian students there. We had also asked for all of Pooja's belongings to be sent back to us but despite several reminders, half her stuff which includes her laptop and other precious items have not yet arrived," said Kallur.

For the last one year, Pooja's family and friends have relentlessly tried to follow up with the government but all they have got are generic responses from the authorities that the investigation is on.

"We are really waiting for some action to be initiated against the authorities because of whom we had lost Pooja," added Kallur.

Girish Kurne, a family friend of Pooja, is one of the several well wishers tweeting every week to the authorities.

"We have decided to keep this struggle going. Her immediate family has still not been able to overcome this trauma. Losing one's daughter is the most painful experience for any parent. We will not give up hope until justice is done to her," he added.

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