The body of Naveen Shekharappa Gyanagoudar, the 21-year-old medical student who was killed in Ukraine, will arrive at the Bengaluru airport at 3 am on Sunday, said Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, according to PTI.

Gyanagoudar was killed on March 1 after Russian forces attacked Kharkiv city. His body was embalmed and kept in a mortuary in Ukraine.

Many Indian students had taken shelter in bunkers and underground metro stations as Kharkiv came under heavy attack from the Russian forces that invaded Ukraine on February 24.

On March 2, the 21-year-old’s father, Shekarappa Gyanagoudar, had said that the government had assured him that his son’s body would be brought back to India within two days. He had urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Bommai to help bring back his son’s body.

On March 5, Bommai had told the family that all efforts were being made to bring back the body of Naveen Shekharappa Gyanagoudar and had also promised compensation.

The chief minister’s guarantee had come a day after a Bharatiya Janata Party MLA from Karnataka had made a controversial comment, saying that a coffin in a plane would occupy space that could otherwise be used for eight to 10 students stranded in Ukraine. Hubbali-Dharwad MLA, Arvind Bellad, had made the statement in the context of uncertainty over bringing back the remains of Gyanagoudar.