HYDERABAD: Railway employee Baburao is welcomed home every evening by the laughter and chattering of his three children. But the first thing he noticed on Wednesday as he entered the locality was a huge crowd that had gathered outside his block. He pushed his way through the crowd to see his 12-year-old daughter Pallavi lying there in a pool of blood.
Immediately he rushed her to railway hospital. “The hospital is just half a kilometre away, so I did not even wait for the ambulance,” he says. “I kept calling out to her on the way. She even responded. I was hopeful that she would survive,” he says before breaking down. Pallavi died after a battling for life for more than four hours. Her parents, Baburao and Sumitra, hail from Vikarabad district. The family has been living in the railway quarters for more than five years. Usually, Pallavi plays with her sister Keerthana. But on Tuesday, she had gone alone with Sriya to play on the terrace.
Pallavi, her siblings and Sriya were very close as their families were neighbours for a long time. Sriya, who was just 18 months old, died on the spot following the fall. The couple were married and without a child for nearly 10 years before Sriya came into their lives. “The lives of Krishnaprasad and Renuka were suddenly brimming with happiness with the birth of Sriya. It lasted for all but 18 months,” says a relative of the family. “Krishnaprasad had health complications, but he used to feel comforted at the very sight of his daughter. Now, they have been further pushed to despair.”
Minister assures help
Secunderabad MLA and Minister for Excise and Prohibition T Padma Rao visited the families and expressed his condolences. He assured them of all possible help and took care of the funeral expenses of the children. The funerals were held in their native places Vikarabad, Bidar