his could be the worst nightmare for parents! Imagine the prospect of having to look at disfigured and decomposed bodies in a morgue and then struggling to identify their own children.
On Wednesday, Hanumantha Rao found himself lost in the middle of unclaimed bodies retrieved from the debris of City Light Hotel. He was looking for the familiar surgical scar on the right side of his son’s head, the only discernable mark that could have helped him identify the body.
In the end he found the scar and when the harsh reality of having lost his young son forever set in, the father lost control. Tears started to roll.
“He was just 20 years old and I still don’t understand why he deserved this. His body was disfigured and the scar on the head was the only way we could identify him,” he cried, on identifying his son Sai Suresh Kumar.
The youngster worked at a nearby textile showroom and ventured into the hotel at around 5.30 a.m. on Monday to have a cup of tea.
“I still wonder why he had to wake up so early and go to the hotel. This is like a bad dream. Although he was my elder brother, we were like friends because he was older to me by just three minutes,” said Sai Likhitha, Suresh’s twin sister.
Along with his sister, Suresh did his schooling in a private school in Saroornagar before moving to Guntur, when his father, a government employee, was transferred.
“He was not interested in studies and was restless. He had dreams and wanted to move on, start from scratch. He always told me that he will become a successful businessman,” recalls Likhitha.
Cell phone found
After retrieving the body of Suresh, the authorities managed to get hold of his cell phone, which he was carrying on person. Later, the police also managed to recover phone numbers and immediately contacted Hanumantha Rao.
“We received the call on Tuesday evening and immediately rushed to Hyderabad. Despite my efforts, Suresh was never interested in studies. He left Guntur and came to Hyderabad four years ago for work. I never thought that one day I will have to come to take his body,” said the disconsolate man.
