The body of a 46-year-old Indian immigrant, who was shoved onto the tracks of subway train by a woman in New York, will be cremated on Monday.
The last rites of Sunando Sen will be performed in New York by his friends with whom he shared a room. Sen, who owned a small business of copying and printing near Columbia University, was unmarried and his parents were dead.
Condoling Sen's death, Indian ambassador to the US Nirupama Rao tweeted, "R.I.P Sunando Sen, citizen of India who has been taken away from us in an act of murder most senseless and foul. R Consulate NY (sic) is in touch with friends of deceased who are arranging cremation on Monday afternoon. Apparently no family in India."
Sen was pushed to the tracks of subway train at Queens station by a woman identified as Erika Menendez on Dec 27. The police tracked her down on Saturday and charge sheeted her with second-degree murder as a hate crime.
Menendez told police that Menendez killed Sen as she hated Hindus and Muslims after the Sep 11, 2001 attack at the Manhattan's World Trade Center by terrorists. In a report issued by the police she was quoted as saying, "I pushed a Muslim off the train tracks because I hate Hindus and Muslims ever since 2001 when they put down the twin towers I've been beating them up."
The police refused to comment on the mental state of the accused and said that the court will decided if Menendez was fit to stand the trials. Reportedly, she will be imprisoned for 25 years if found guilty.
