TIRUPATI: Fact is indeed stranger than fiction. Twenty-five-year-old Challapalli Sravan Kumar Reddy’s life is sure to beat the story-telling capabilities of even the best scriptwriters. Three days ago, Reddi Rani, the woman who has been raising Sravan as her son for the past nine years, came to know that he was not her child when her biological son, who ran away from home when he was 11 years old, came back to establish his identity.
But Reddi Rani couldn’t fathom parting with Sravan, and so has decided to legally adopt him. In a couple of days, all formalities are expected to be completed. “He will not go anywhere. He will continue to be with us,” she affirmed.Meanwhile, her biological son, the real Sravan Kumar, who grew up in Tumkur of Karnataka is reluctant to stay with Rani.
He says he’d rather stay in Tumkur where he works as a mason and stays with the family of an engineer who took him under his wing all those years ago. He wants to establish his identity because the family of the girl he wishes to marry wanted to know about his roots. However, his real family wants him to stay. “I will go back to Tumkur tomorrow. We’ll see what can be done. I have commitments there, but my mother and relatives want me to stay,” he told TNIE, explaining his dilemma.
The soon-to-be-adopted Sravan Kumar says he has been insisting that he is not their son right from the beginning. “But, they have treated me well and raised me as their own. I will do whatever they want me to,” he told TNIE. Calling the biological son, his brother, he said he was only happy that the family had finally been able to see their real son and if the man wished to stay with the family, he would be elated.
The confusion regarding the identities of the two namesakes started in 2009, when Challapalli Raghunatha Reddy, the sarpanch of Mandalolapalle village in Thamballapalle mandal of Chittoor district, visited Tirupati along with his wife Reddi Rani. The couple, who is from a prominent political family in Thamballapalle, had been searching long and hard for their son Sravan Kumar Reddy who ran away from home in 2004.
At a hotel in the temple town, the couple saw a 16-year-old worker who looked similar to their son. With their hopes raised, they started inquiring about the boy, who steadfastly maintained that he was not their son. “Not only his name, his age, looks and birth marks too resembled that of their son’s. They found that the boy started working at the hotel 5 years back – around the same time their son went missing,” explained C Venugopal Reddy, Raghunatha Reddy’s brother.
Though the teenager made vain attempts to run away from the politico’s home after being forcefully brought to Mandalolapalle from Tirupati, he later began see the couple as his parents thanks to the unconditional love they showered on him. As he was not educated, he started doing odd businesses.
A few years ago, Raghunatha Reddy passed away and Sravan Kumar Reddy started taking care of the family.
The biological son who approached Rani Reddi recently had told the family of the girl he wished to marry that he belonged to a prominent political family in Chittoor district and wanted to prove so.
The saga of mistaken identities came to light when it was tweeted by Sravan Kumar’s relative Ramprasad three days ago.