Hyderabad, September 03: The Finance Minister, Mr K. Rosaiah, on Thursday morning, confirmed the sad demise of the ‘Man of the masses’ and the ‘real Hero’ Chief Minister, Dr Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, and his entourage comprising his Special Secretary, Mr P Subrahmanyam, an IAS officer, Chief Security Officer, Mr A.S.C. Wesley and two pilots in the helicopter crash. The helicopter went missing since yesterday morning.
In an unprecedented search, the Army, CRPF, Greyhounds, local police and civil authorities sifted the Nallamala forest since Wednesday noon. Finally, a search team led by Mr Sagar Bharathi of the Army found the wreckage of the helicopter and the bodies of the five on a hillock this morning. Stating that it was a most painful duty he had ever performed, Mr Rosaiah announced the tragic news at a packed press conference at the Secretariat. With tears welling up his eyes, Mr Rosaiah said that it was unbelievable that Dr Reddy, with whom they rubbed shoulders till Tuesday evening, was no more. Stating that Dr Reddy was 14 to 15 years younger to him, Mr Rosaiah said that thousands of party supporters and admirers of Dr Reddy prayed God for the safe return of their beloved leader, but they have gone in vain. People of all religions prayed the Almighty in their respective places of worship for the safe return of Dr Reddy. But the fate proved otherwise.
Mr Rosaiah said that the bodies of all the five were charred beyond recognition as the helicopter went up in flames after hitting a hillock, 40 nautical miles east of Kurnool. He said that efforts were on to bring the bodies down from the hillock and this could be possible by 5 pm. After post mortem at Kurnool, the body of the Chief Minister would be taken to his camp office in Hyderabad by Thursday night. On Friday, Dr Reddy’s body would be kept at the Lal Bahadur Stadium from 10 a.m. to enable the party workers, officials and the people who poured into the city from all parts of the State to pay their last respects.
The bodies of the pilots, the CSO and the Personal Secretary would be sent to their respective places and every help would be rendered to their families from the government. He said that four ministers were assigned the duty of going to the houses of the others who died in the crash and consoling their family members.
–NSS