A pall of gloom descended on the residence of advocate Srinivas Shetty in Prakashnagar in Bangalore on Sunday.
Srinivas Shetty, 33, was among the three Ayyappa devotees from the city, who lost their lives in the stampede at Pulimedu near Sabarimala on Friday night.
To make matters worse for the family, the younger brother of Srinivas, Raghavendra Babu, 32, who runs a pharmacy, also suffered injuries in the tragedy. He is in hospital.
A large number of relatives and friends of the two brothers had gathered in the makeshift pandal erected outside their house.
Srinivas' wife Anjana was inconsolable when the body was brought here. Apart from his wife, Srinivas is survived by a son.
Both Srinivas and Raghavendra were ardent devotees of Ayyappa and used to regularly visit Sabarimala temple, their relatives said. Srinivas had gone to the Sabarimala temple along with his brother this year too. While Srinivas died, Mr. Babu suffered severe injuries. He was shifted to a hospital in Bangalore after being treated in a local hospital in Kerala.
Srinivas and Raghavendra shared a very good bond. “We have still not informed him that Srinivas is dead. Instead, we have told him that he is undergoing treatment in another hospital,” said a relative.
The relatives also took exception to reports in a section of the media that claimed that both the brothers had died.
Babu's wife Pavithra, who saw television visuals showing her husband being taken on a stretcher, rushed to the accident scene along with her sister-in-law Lakshmi in a taxi.
Meanwhile, the bodies of Manjunath, 32, and Nagarjuna, 22, both residents of Garudacharpalya, too reached the city in the early hours of Sunday.
Apart from the three victims from the city, one devotee from Anekal, which comes under Bangalore Rural police limits, also died in the stampede. He was identified as Venkataswamy, 43, a farmer.
