HYDERABAD / WARANGAL: Parents of Damera Rakesh, who succumbed to bullet injuries while protesting at the Secunderabad Railway station against the Union government’s armed forces recruitment scheme Agnipath on Friday, were inconsolable upon receiving the news. The 24-year-old, who they were sure would scale great heights in life, was in the final year of his degree course in Hanamkonda. Ironically, Rakesh was in Hyderabad to attend an Army recruitment drive. The family hails from Dabeerpet in Khanapur mandal of Warangal district.
His parents Kumara Swamy and Phulamma were expecting Rakesh to soon join the Army as he had cleared the physical fitness examination and was deemed eligible to take the written test.He was at a loss for words when the police told him that his son caught a bullet when the police opened fire after protesters began setting fire to the trains.
He was taken to Gandhi Hospital where the doctors there declared him dead on arrival.Fighting back tears, Kumara Swamy said: “We did not know that he went to Secunderabad railway station to take part in the protest. Our dreams crashed when the local police came to us and broke the news. My son wanted to get into the Army as he wanted to be like his sister who went into the BSF and is now working in West Bengal.”
Rakesh was very passionate about joining the army, said his friends and cousins who were present at the Gandhi Hospital. “He recently had cleared the physical test and was waiting for further selection process. But when he learnt that recruitment would happen only through the Agnipath scheme, he got depressed and decided to participate in the protest,” a friend said, adding that his WhatsApp status on Thursday night was about the protest.Rakesh used to spend the entire day building physical str-ength and had won many medals in running and volleyball.