BENGALURU: It was supposed to be a quick vacation, a reward for having completed the grind of the Lok Sabha elections. For four Janata Dal (Secular) workers and a party supporter, however, the serial blasts in Sri Lanka, meant an abrupt end to their lives instead.The workers hailed from Bengaluru while the fifth, L Ramesh, was a businessman in Tumakuru, who had recently canvassed for JDS supremo H D Deve Gowda.
Another victim of the blasts is Nagaraj Reddy, a businessman from Bengaluru who had travelled to Colombo to receive an honorary doctorate. This takes the total toll of people from the state to 7, including 58-year-old Razeena Khader Kukkady, who hailed from Surathkal and had settled in Sri Lanka.Two are missing and one person is injured and recovering at a hospital in Colombo.
In a tweet on Monday, Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy expressed shock and grief about the death of his party workers. He confirmed the names of the deceased workers as K G Hanumnatarayappa, the president of Matrushree Developers, Govenahalli Shivanna, the founder of Harsha Hospital and Harsha School in Nelamangala, K M Lakshminarayana, panchayat member and M Rangappa, a developer from Vidyaranyapura.
“All of them looked so happy and they sent us pictures of the flight around 2 am on Saturday. On Sunday morning, my uncle messaged us saying he was headed for breakfast and would call later. This was his last call to us,” said Shivanna, a relative of Hanumantarayappa. The group checked into the hotel around 8am on Sunday.
Speaking to The New Indian Express, Shivakumar, the brother-in-law of Shivanna, said, “They had gone on a four-day trip and were due to return on Wednesday.”Maregowda and Puttaraju, both developers and JDS workers, are said to be missing and the families have left for Sri Lanka to look for their loved ones. The six-member team of workers were joined by Ramesh for the trip. Maregowda and Puttaraju stepped out of the hotel as they did not want to have the buffet breakfast and this might have saved their lives. They are yet to be tracked down.
Meanwhile, 53-year-old businessman Nagaraj Reddy, who had gone to Sri Lanka to receive an honorary doctorate, was having breakfast at Kingsbury hotel along with his relative Purushottam Reddy when the blast took his life. Purushotham is recovering at a hospital in Colombo and will return on Wednesday.
The state government has appointed Anjum Parvez, Principal Secretary of DPAR, as the nodal officer to coordinate with the Indian Embassy in Sri Lanka. “The Indian Embassy will provide information on the other two missing persons as soon as it is received,” the Chief Secretary said.
Deceased from state
H Shivakumar alias Govenahalli Shivanna, resident of Subhash Nagar in Nelamangala Town.
Hanumantha- rayappa of Dasarahalli in Peenya
M Rangappa of Vidyaranyapura
K M Lakshmi- narayana of Nelamangala Town
Lakshmana gowda Ramesh of Tumakuru
S R Nagaraj alias Nagaraj Reddy of BTM Layout in Bengaluru
Razeena Khader Kukkady (Sri Lankan citizen, with ties to Karnataka)
Missing
Puttaraju, Maregowda
Injured
Purushotham Reddy
