He was eager to serve, says family of teen killed in firing

WARANGAL: The news of Damodara Rakesh’s death came as a shocker to Kumaraswamy and Phulamma — both agriculturalists — who had no idea their son had gone to Secunderabad to protest against the Agnipath scheme, along with hundreds of others.

Rakesh, 18, succumbed to bullet injuries when the Railway police opened fire on the mob at the Secunderabad station on Friday. He was rushed to the Gandhi Hospital along with the other injured but was declared dead on arrival. Soon, a posse of policemen, including RAF, was deployed at the hospital anticipating protests.

A final year graduation student from Dabeerpet village in Warangal’s Khanapur mandal in Telangana, Rakesh had cleared his physical fitness examination and was thrilled to join the Army soon, recollected relatives. His sister, Rama, is already enrolled with BSF and is posted in Kolkata.

“He was very inspired by his sister. He wanted to serve the nation and was waiting for the written examination so that he could fulfil his dream. I still can’t believe what happened,” a distraught Kumaraswamy said. He added: “We too were looking forward to his recruitment into Army.”

Narsampet MLA Peddi Sudarshan Reddy reached out to the bereaved family. He also gave a bandh call on Saturday against Rakesh’s killing.

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