Mangaluru: The last rites  of Deepak Rao who was brutally murdered at Katipalla on January 3, Wednesday were held at the Hindu crematorium at Katipalla Janatha Colony on the afternoon of January 4, Thursday.

Earlier, there was much confusion outside Deepak's house since morning after the police had secretly shifted his body from the AJ Hospital to Katipalla,  in the backdrop of the insistence of Hindu outfits to take out a funeral procession from the Hospital to Katipalla.   The activists refused to allow the body to be taken to his house  from the ambulance. It was after   the intervention of Deputy Commissioner Sasikanth Senthil that the activists relented. The DC also permitted the funeral procession to be taken out from Deepak's residence at Katipalla to the Hindu crematorium. The funeral procession was thus taken out amid unprecedented security arrangements and reached Katipalla crematorium at 1.45 pm after traversing a distance of six kms. The final rites were held in accordance to the Kshatriya tradition.

Deepak  Rao (22), a resident of Katipalla Kaikamba who worked as an executive for a private mobile company  and who was reportedly associated with a Sangh Parivar organisation was brutally hacked to death at the Krishnapura-Katipalla road on Wednesday by a gang of four assailants  who waylaid his bike. The assailants were reportedly following Deepak .  Though a critically injured Deepak was immediately rushed to the hospital, he had breathed his last by then.

The Police who swung into operation immediately had chased the car of the miscreants and had zeroed in on them at  Mijar where  the cops had to even open fire injuring one of the assailants. All the four were later arrested.

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Mumbai (PTI): French President Emmanuel Macron, along with First Lady Brigitte Macron, left Mumbai for New Delhi on Wednesday after concluding his engagements here, including bilateral talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

They were seen off at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport by Maharashtra Governor Acharya Devvrat, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Deputy CM Eknath Shinde.

On Tuesday, Macron held discussions with Modi as part of efforts to further strengthen India-France strategic ties.

During the Mumbai visit, the French president and his wife also met some of India's top filmmakers and actors, and had an animated exchange with them about cinema, culture and collaboration.

President Macron is on an official visit to India from February 17 to 19 at the invitation of PM Modi to participate in the AI Impact Summit hosted by India in the national capital Delhi, besides the bilateral summit in Mumbai.

PM Modi will inaugurate the summit on February 19. As many as 20 heads of states, including French President Macron, will be present at the inaugural session, Electronics and IT Secretary S Krishnan said.