Hyderabad, Jan 27 (IANS): Search was on for a youth who went missing after Sunday night’s fire on two boats in Hussain Sagar Lake in Hyderabad. Four persons sustained injuries when fireworks were set off from two boats in the lake as part of the ‘Bharat Mata Maha Harati’ programme at People’s Plaza on Necklace Road abutting the lake.
The injured were admitted to hospitals and the condition of one of them was critical.
The family of a youth approached police in the early hours of Monday that he went missing from Hussain Sagar last night.
The youth was identified as Ajay. His mother and other family members reached the lake on Monday morning and demanded that the authorities launch a search operation to trace him.
Expert swimmers from the Disaster Response Force were deployed for the search operation. Ajay, an engineering student from Nagaram on the city outskirts, had told her mother that he was at Tank Bund with his friends.
His mother said she spoke to him over the phone around 8.30 p.m. and he informed her that he would return home after midnight.
She said she called him over the phone around 11 p.m. but it was switched off. She tried again around midnight. One of Ajay’s friends contacted the family at 2 a.m. to inform them he was missing.
The family members along with Ajay’s friends visited the hospitals to confirm if he was among the injured. When they did not find him, they approached the police. They suspect that Ajay might have jumped into the lake after a fire broke out.
Police registered a case and continued the investigation into the fire which broke out due to the explosion of firecrackers.
The injured were identified as Ganapati (22), K. Sai Chand (20), Chinatala Krishna (47) and Praneet. Ganapati was admitted to Yashoda Hospital in critical condition. Three others sustained minor injuries and were shifted to Gandhi Hospital.
Telangana Governor Jishnu Dev Varma and Union Minister G. Kishan Reddy attended the ‘Bharat Mata Maha Harati’ programme. They had left the venue after a cultural performance by artists and speeches.