Stillness of a bleak hope was shattered as search teams retrieved the body of 21-year-old S. Ajay on Tuesday evening. This comes about 48 hours after he was reported missing following a fire during the celebration of ‘Bharata Mata Maha Harati’ event on Hussainsagar on Sunday night.
Hours before the discovery, the regular visitors and tourists at the bustling People’s Plaza, a popular hangout spot in Hyderabad, were replaced by around 100 family members, relatives and friends who stared at the deep waters for answers. Seated on a white plastic sheet spread next to the lake was his mother Nagalakshmi, her eyes swollen from crying. She has been waiting at the spot since 2.45 a.m. of Monday. “Before leaving, he said he would be back in time for dinner by 11 p.m. I just want my son back…..mera beta…,” she sobbed.
Ajay’s sister, 18-year-old Pallavi, sitting under the shade of a tree, broke down as she remembered her conversation with him on Sunday. “When I returned from my grandmother’s place, he asked how I was back so early. That was the last time we spoke,” she said. “My brother has been a great support for me. He always dropped me off at my college in Mallapur, helped me out with my studies and made sure I was doing well. Among the three siblings, he was the most intelligent and bright. He was the backbone of our family,” she cried.
A final year student of technology at Geethanjali College of Engineering and Technology in Cheeryala, Ajay had recently landed a job in an IT company through the campus placement drive. His father S. Janakiramulu, an auto driver educated his children. “Just before he could join the job and things would get better, this has happened,” he said.
In the middle of Hussainsagar, the Disaster Response Force (DRF) teams clad in orange life jackets manoeuvered their Inflatable Rescue Boats (IRBs), rubber boats with an outboard motor, attempting to search for the body. “The boats move continuously to create ripples, which helps the body rise to the surface,” explained Secretariat Inspector M. Satyanarayana. Two teams each from National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), Telangana Fire Department and police discovered the body around 7.30 p.m. on Tuesday.
Preliminary results suggest that the cause of death was drowning and the body had no visible burn injury marks. The body was shifted to Gandhi Hospital for post-mortem examination. The autopsy report will shed more light on the exact cause of death.
Earlier on Sunday
It was a regular Republic Day for Ajay before he received a call from his classmates Raghavendra and Sai Chand K. persuading him to join the event in Hussainsagar Lake. Around 7.30 p.m., Ajay left his home in Nagaram of Medchal on his two-wheeler. According to Mr. Janakiramulu, the family was in touch with him and spoke to him around 8.30 p.m., but all the calls after 9.30 p.m. did not connect.
“Ganapathi and Manikanta, who were acquaintances of Ajay’s friends, were among the organisers for the event. They arranged a special boat for them to get to the jetty where the firecracker show was to be conducted,” said Ajay’s cousin Samyogh, who was among the first to receive news of him going missing. “Through his last Snapchat story, I connected with a couple of his friends and finally got in touch with Raghavendra, who told me about the accident,” he added.
Family members complained that they only got the news around 2.30 a.m. on Monday, over five hours after the accident. They also said that despite multiple requests, a case was not booked against Manikanta, Ganapathi or the Bharata Mata Foundation in connection with the accident.
Ganapathi, 22, a pyrotechnician, had the key role in lighting the firecrackers. He was on the jetty on which the firecrackers were arranged. He succumbed to his burn injuries in Yashoda Hospital on Tuesday. Sai Chand K. is reported to be in stable condition and undergoing treatment at the same hospital.
