(If you feel suicidal or know someone in distress, please reach out to them with kindness and call these numbers of local emergency services, helplines, and mental health NGOs.)
Upset over the alleged delay in getting a Canadian student visa, a 23-year-old man, identified as Vikesh Saini, died by suicide in Haryana's Kurukshetra, the police said on Saturday, 20 August.
However, in a cruel twist of fate, his visa reportedly reached his home a day after he passed away.
"On Thursday, his visa came. But he was already missing by then. He'd been upset ever since his friend's visa to Canada came, that his was getting delayed endlessly. The family, too, wanted to send their son to Canada for a better life," NDTV quoted Gurnam Singh, former sarpanch of Gorkha and a family friend, as saying.
His body was found floating in the Narwana branch canal on Friday evening, the police added.
Saini, a resident of village Jhansa, wanted to go to Canada for further education. He had recently completed his graduation. As per the police, he was extremely distressed over the delay in acquiring his Canadian visa.
Station House Officer (Jhansa) Rajpal Singh indicated that Vikesh had left his home on the night of 17 August.
His family members and police started searching for him the next day. His relatives found his motorcycle and slippers on the bank of the canal.
The body was handed over to family members on Saturday after a post-mortem examination.
Reason For Visa Delays
Since the coronavirus pandemic, long delays in getting visas have become commonplace. Due to a high volume of applications, several countries, including the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia, are delaying visas, majorly affecting students and tourists.
The primary reasons for these delays include understaffed embassies, high demand from outgoing Indian travellers, the backlog of student visas, and stricter visa policies.
"Canada has a backlog of 2.7 million due to the pandemic," Ajay Sharma, founder of Abhinav Immigration Services, said in July this year.
(With inputs from PTI.)
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