Kids’ bodies washed ashore

VISAKHAPATNAM: The bodies of two children, who were missing since Saturday morning, washed ashore opposite the Aqua Sports complex here on Sunday.
The deceased have been identified as 14-year-old Babji and 11-year-old B Joseph Kumar. At 7 am on Sunday, the body of Joseph Kumar washed ashore opposite the Aqua Sports complex, while Babji’s body was spotted around 1 pm, a few metres away.The bodies had drifted nearly half a kilometre from where the children had gone missing.
Joseph Kumar, the son of physically-challenged B Dhanalakshmi, was a Class VII student of a residential missionary school near Gannavaram airport in Vijayawada and had come to Vizag on April 23. Kumar’s mother used to seek alms to send money for him as his father, a rickshaw puller, had died six months ago. Babji, son of Samanthalu Lakshmi, was working in a hotel in the Port City and had lost his father last year.
Kumar wanted to go to the beach and had asked his mother for permission but she refused and asked him to play in the neighbourhood instead, police said. However, the two children later went to the beach.
Dhanalakshmi was worried since morning about the absence of her son. When Samanthalu Lakshmi returned from work around 10pm, she asked her neighbour Dhanalakshmi about the children. When the children could not be found till late in the night, the two went to Two Town police station to lodge a complaint. There the women were shown the clothes that were found on the beach, which they identified.