India / General Bipin Rawat's daughters immerse parents' ashes in Ganga in Haridwar

Haridwar: Bidding final adieu to their parents, Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Bipin Rawat’s daughters–Kritika and Tarini– immersed their parents’ ashes into Ganga in Uttarakhand’s Haridwar on Saturday. CDS Rawat, the country’s top military officer, along with his wife and 11 others was killed in an Indian Air Force (IAF) chopper crash near Conoor in Tamil Nadu on Wednesday.

Kritika and Tarini collected their parents’ ashes from Brar Square crematorium, in Delhi Cantonment earlier this morning, where General Rawat and his wife Madhulika Rawat were cremated with full military honours on Friday. Kritika and Tarini performed their parents’ last rites on Friday.

Meanwhile, the mortal remains of four Indian Air Force personnel and two Indian Army soldiers who died in the military helicopter crash near Coonoor in Tamil Nadu earlier this week has been completed.

Earlier, along with bodies of General Rawat his wife and his defence assistant Brigadier LS Lidder, was also positively identified, and was cremated with full military honours in the Brar Square crematorium in the national capital on Friday.

The Indian Army said that Lance Naik Vivek Kumar and Lance Naik B Sai Teja, who lost their lives in the chopper crash have been positively identified and their mortal remains have been released to close family members on Saturday morning.

“Mortal remains will move by air for last rites with appropriate military honour. The wreath will be laid at Base Hospital in Delhi Cantonment prior to the departure. The process for positive identification of remaining mortal remains is continuing,” the Army said.

The other defence personnel who died in the crash have been identified as Junior Warrant Officers Arakkal Pradeep and Rana Pratap Das, Wing Commander PS Chauhan and Squadron Leader Kuldeep Singh. The bodies of the victims were flown from Sulur near Coimbatore to the Palam airbase Thursday evening in caskets wrapped in the Tricolour.

The Army has informed that the process for positive identification of remaining bodies was continuing.

Other defence forces personnel who died in thecrash include CDS Rawat’s Staff Officer Lieutenant Colonel Harjinder Singh, Havildar Satpal Rai, Naik Gursewak Singh and Naik Jitendra Kumar.

Group Captain Varun Singh, the lone survivor in the crash, has been shifted to Air Force Command hospital at Bengaluru for further treatment. The Indian Air Force has constituted a tri-service Court of Inquiry to investigate the cause of the crash.