Hyderabad: Eran Sai Kumar, a passenger on the boat that capsized in the Godavari at Devipatnam Mandal on Sunday, is still missing. But no one has told his father, a 60-year-old who has been bedridden with paralysis the past five years. Or his mother, who is still on medication for a recent bout of viral fever. For when the parents heard of the mishap they fainted. Twice.
Their family unplugged the TV and told them Sai Kumar was on his way home. It didn’t help that relatives flooded the home at Madhapur to sympathise. “Seeing the crowd, the parents panicked and again fainted,” cousin E. Mahesh said. Sai Kumar, a fitness trainer, was the family’s sole breadwinner.
He and three friends, Mohd Mujurriddin (a survivor), of Attapur, Taleb Patel and Akbal Singh, both from Tolichowki, of the Flagship gym went sightseeing to Rajah-mundry on Saturday evening. Three cousins rushed to Rajahmundry, hoping against hope. Cousin E. Gopal has photos of the friends taken around noon on Sunday.
“They wore life jackets in the picture,” he said. “But as the boat stopped for lunch they took off the life jackets and then it happened. Mujurriddin knew swimming and was rescued by local fishermen. But my brother didn’t know how to swim. We are hoping he is alive somewhere and will come home soon.” Mujurriddin told Deccan Chronicle over phone: “I was standing right beside the driver when we noticed a whirlpool. My friends were on the deck, taking photos. The boat tilted and I jumped without a life jacket and the next thing I remember was a fisherman pulling me into his small boat.”
Vadrevu Srinivas from Kakinada adds: An infant that was just a month old was found by a search team on the Godavari shore near the Kachuluru Manda in Devipat-nam Mandal. Officials denied the baby fell off the boat, saying there was no lactating mother on the boat. Health officers are trying to determine if there had been any deliveries.
