Nellore: Thousands of people turned up for a last glimpse of Nishit, the son of urban development minister Dr. P. Narayana, and pay floral tributes to him at Narayana Medical College grounds in Nellore on Thursday.
Nishit, 23, and his friend Raja Ravichandra have died in a horrific accident in Hyderabad in the early hours of Wednesday. His body was brought to Nellore on Wednesday night.
Mr. Narayana, who was in London when the mishap took place, reached Nellore during the early hours of Thursday. Everyone in the family broke down when he came to see his son’s body.
Cutting across party lines, leaders of different political parties called on the bereaved family. VIPs, politicians and citizens thronged college grounds in large numbers from morning to pay homage to Nishit.
Among others, film producer Allu Aravind, Legislative Council Chair-man Chakrapani, Krishna Madiga and DGP Sambasiva Rao were present at the funeral.
A large number of people took part in a funeral procession taken out from Narayana Medical College to Penna River Bank. Ministers and Mr Narayana’s family and relatives followed the rally in two separate buses.
Barring a few ministers, the entire AP Cabinet, including the Chief Minister’s son, Mr Nara Lokesh, came to Nellore and they were with the minister till all the rituals were completed at the banks of the Penna River.
AP ministers and leaders at the funeral of Nishit in Nellore on Thursday.
Those who could not make it included Pithani Satyanarayana, K.E. Krishnamurthy, Kaluva Srinivasulu and Kodela Siva Prasada Rao. Mr Yanamala Ramakrish-nudu is in the team accompanying the CM.
Nellore superintendent of police Vishal Gunni and Chittoor SP Srinivas took care of the security arrangements and crowd control measures at Narayana Medical College premises where the body was kept. They coordinated with the general manager of Narayana Institut-ions, V. Vijayabhakar Reddy, his brother V. Patta-bhirami Reddy, AGM Bhaskar Reddy and Minister’s OSD Penchal Reddy to avoid any inconvenience to the public. Guntur Rural SP Narayana Nayak supervised arrangements at the ground.
Dad maintains his composure
Despite the loss of his only son, Andhra Pradesh urban development minister Dr. P Narayana maintained his composure till he performed the last rites on Thursday.
He was seen greetinge everyone who called on him with folded hands, keeping his emotions at bay. It was a heart-wren-ching sight for the people present to see a father lig-hting his only son’s pyre.
At least 15 to 20 friends of Nishit also came to be part of their friend’s last journey. Some of them burst into loud wails when Dr. Narayana performed the rites.
“He seems to have told himself to remain composed because his entire family will go into depression if he breaks down. He also may want to indicate to the thousands of Narayana employees he is keeping things together,” a close aide said.
Minister Devineni Umamaheswara Rao and AP State Mahila Commission chairperson Nannpaneni Rajakumari look at the body of Nishit’s friend Kamani Raja Ravichandra in Tanguturu on Thursday. (Photo: DC)
He said Dr. Narayana was calm despite everyone else around him breaking down when he reached the spot. After spending two hours near his son’s body, he went to his home to mentally prepare his daughter, Sindhu, to see the body after he came to know that she had been traumatised by the death and not willing to the see her brother’s body.
Sindhu looked after the management of Narayana institutions before Nishit joined her as director to take care of marketing.
