Family members, relatives and friends of 21-year-old S. Ajay, who had been waiting near the lake for the past 48 hours, were not shown his body after the retrieval operation.
“As soon as his body was retrieved, it was taken from the rear entrance of the Sanjeevaiah Park without the knowledge of his family and relatives. After multiple requests, we were allowed to see the body at Gandhi Hospital,” said Ajay’s cousin Samyogh, who was involved in lodging a missing person complaint on Monday.
According to D. Dashrath Rao, a social worker who was serving food to the family members on Tuesday afternoon, the agitated crowd chased the officials who were “secretively transporting” the body to the hospital for post-mortem evaluation. The body is expected to be handed over to the family on Wednesday for final rites.
Following the incident, the family has demanded ₹1 crore ex-gratia and government job for Ajay’s elder brother Aravind.
Family, relatives and friends including Geethanjali College of Engineering and Technology students, are all set to stage a protest at Gandhi Hospital in Secunderabad at 9 a.m., demanding a fair probe into the case. “We are planning to march in a rally towards Union Minister G. Kishan Reddy’s residence in Barkatpura,” the family confirmed.
As investigation into the case intensifies, the police are likely to book a case against the organisers behind the ‘Bharata Mata Maha Harati’ event on Hussainsagar where a fire engulfed a boat and a jetty on Sunday night.
