Woman washed away, body found after four days of search

Hyderabad: Hopes of the family members of 56-year-old Gundella Lakshmi, came crashing after they were informed by the police that Lakshmi’s body was found on Musi riverbed, in Moosarambagh in the early hours of Wednesday.

The victim Lakshmi, on September 3, afternoon after placing rice on the stove, suddenly slipped and fell into DS Nagar nala after she lost her balance from the backdoor of her kitchen close to the nala. Gandhinagar police and Disaster Response Force (DRF) were constantly searching her body from the nala till Nagole using drone cameras, police said.

“We knew my mother was washed away, we couldn’t believe and we hardly were able to eat and did not sleep for the past four days waiting for mother to return anytime keeping the doors open,” Sukanya with tears in her eyes said.

After the police on Tuesday informed us that they suspected that she was washed away, we begged the police and DRF teams to trace my mother, as we wanted to have a glance of her, Sukanya lamented. “On behalf of my two sisters and my husband, I thank Gandhinagar police inspector N. Ravi, his team and the DRF teams who have been constantly involved in searching for the past four days. Sadly, none of the local representatives paid a visit to our house, at least once, she said.

Lakshmi’s husband Gundella Vankatesh died 20 years ago due to ill health. The victim is survived by three daughters.

“For the past seven years, my mother had developed high blood pressure. Several times, she fell on the ground due to rise in blood pressure.We were getting her treated in a government hospital,” Lakshmi’s daughter Sukanya said.

Our two teams comprising 12 officers and two teams of DRF comprising 10 on the same day visited the scene, circulated Lakshmi’s picture through WhatsApp group to the entire police station jurisdiction where the nala passes, N. Ravi said adding that teams did the groundwork and DRF searched the entire stretch of nala from DS Nagar to Nagole using drone cameras.

Since September 3, our three teams were 24x7 on shift duties engaged in searching the victim’s body in the nala that passes through D. S. Nagar, Ashoknagar, Domalguda, Kavadiguda, Gandhinagar, Ashoknagar in Chikkadpally, Ashoknagar, D.S. Himayatnagar, Koti, Malakpet into the Musi river.

“Around 9.20 am, we got information from our control room and we rushed to the scene and came to know that a JCB driver spotted the victim’s body while he was cleaning the garbage on Musi riverbeds near Moosarambagh bridge,” Erugu Manohar, DRF Malakpet team supervisor said.

Meanwhile, Gandhinagar police shifted Lakshmi’s body to Gandhi hospital. After the post-mortem, the body was handed over to her family members who performed her last rites at Bondalgadda.