JOIN USParents and relatives of techie Vishwakant Ankireddy heaved a sigh of relief after he was rescued along with other hostages post the 16-hour ordeal in Sydney. Vishwakant is a native of Gangireddipally of Piduguralla mandal of Guntur district in Coastal Andhra Pradesh.
After his son was released, an elated L Eswar Reddy told reporters at his Sampath Nagar residence in Guntur: “God is great. I am happy that Lord Venkateswara and Saibaba heard our prayers.”
“My son had gone to office as usual and had stepped out for coffee around 10 am. After he was taken hostage at the cafe, his office (Infosys) informed me about the incident but they could not give details,” he said.
He added that he spoke with his son after the drama, and was in touch with his daughter-in-law. “I am safe and going home, nothing to worry now,” Vishwakant reportedly told his father.
Vishwakant did his schooling from Korukonda Sainik School in Vizianagaram district, and engineering from BITS, Pilani (1997) before joining Infosys.
He is on deputation to Australia and has been living there along with family for the past seven years. He is married to Bonthu Shilpa Reddy. The couple have a daughter, Akshaya.
The entire family in Guntur housing colony in Gandhinagar had been glued to television sets since morning after reports of Vishwakant being taken hostage in Sydney emerged. “We kept interacting with officials in Delhi and some friends of the family in Sydney and Melbourne,” said Chakravarthy, a family friend.
Earlier in the day, Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu directed Chief Secretary Krishna Rao and DGP J Ramudu to be in touch with the family and asked state representative and Union Minister Sujana Choudhury in Delhi to coordinate with the Ministry of External Affairs so that Vishwakant’s family could be provided with credible information.
In New Delhi, the Ministry of External Affairs confirmed late in the evening that the two Indian nationals taken hostage along with others in Sydney were safe. The second hostage was identified as Pushpendu Ghosh, also an Infosys employee. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj tweeted that New Delhi was in “constant touch” with Consulate General of India in Sydney and the family of Ankireddy Vishwakant.
“The PM was monitoring the situation throughout,” she posted on the microblogging site Twitter.
The Infosys issued a statement in Bangalore confirming that two of its employees were among the hostages in Sydney. “Both employees have been rescued safely. We are grateful to the Australian authorities and New South Wales Police for their efforts to ensure the safe rescue of the hostages. We also thank the Indian Consulate and the Ministry of External Affairs for their continuous monitoring and involvement in the situation,” it said.