'Don’t have anyone to call my own anymore': Tamil Nadu man mourns wife killed in Tirupati stampede

Chennai: 70-year-old Krishnan from Salem in Tamil Nadu couldn’t control himself as doctors broke the news to him that his 50-year-old wife, Malliga, lost her life due to breathlessness after she was caught in the stampede at Vishnu Nivasam in Tirupati.

“I don’t have anyone to call my own anymore. I lost my kids to Coronavirus and other diseases. And now, my wife is also gone. How do I console myself?” Krishnan asked with tears rolling down his cheeks.

The couple from Mecheri in Salem arrived in Tirupati at around 3.15 pm on Wednesday by train and reached Vishnu Nivasam complex to get the free tickets for a darshan of Lord Balaji on the auspicious Vaikunda Ekadesi on Friday.

At around 7 pm, crowds started swelling in the spot as people jostled with each other and pushed each other to get the tickets. “It was complete chaos, and all we could hear was screams of people. My wife got stuck in the stampede and she got hurt in her hip. I lifted her on my own and reached to safety, but she was declared dead by doctors. Everything happened in just an hour,” Narayanan added.

Krishnan and Mallika’s children passed away during the Covid-19 pandemic and the couple lived in a village in Salem district and was in Tirupati along with eight other people from their hamlet.

“I will be all alone now,” Narayanan said, adding that they came two days early to get the ticket so that they offer prayers to Lord Balaji on Friday. “The arrangements were not proper and there was no place for people to wait,” he alleged.

On Thursday, Narayanan refused to accept his wife Malliga’s body from the hospital after the postmortem report mentioned that she died due to health issues. “How can they say that she was unwell? My wife was healthy, and she was doing fine till we stood in the queue. She died due to breathlessness after getting caught in the stampede. This isn’t fair,” he said.

Meanwhile, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin condoled Malliga’s death and announced a solatium of Rs 2 lakh to her family.