India's top general Bipin Rawat laid to rest with full military honours
His daughters performed Rawat and his wife Madhulika’s last rites
New Delhi: India's top general, Bipin Rawat, was cremated in New Delhi on Friday with full military honours, including a 17-gun salute, two days after he and 12 others died in a helicopter crash in southern India.
Rawat, India's first Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), who led one of the world's largest armed forces, and his entourage had been flying to a hillside military college on Wednesday when their helicopter came down in heavy fog.
His daughters performed Rawat and his wife Madhulika’s last rites.
Hundreds of soldiers escorted the carriage bearing the 63-year-old general's body on its final journey through India's capital. A dozen senior military officers had earlier kept a vigil while his body lay in state at his home.
Onlookers showered flowers on his coffin during the procession, and dozens holding the Indian flag ran alongside the carriage, some shouting "Hail mother India".
The bodies of Rawat, his wife and 11 defence personnel who also died in the crash were brought to New Delhi late on Thursday, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi and others laid wreathes before the flag-draped coffins.
"India will never forget their rich contribution," Modi said.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah paid his last respects to Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat and his wife Madhulika Rawat.
Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami also paid floral tributes to the CDS and his wife.
An IAF chopper crash near Tamil Nadu’s Coonoor on Wednesday claimed the lives of 13 people including CDS Rawat and his wife Madhulika Rawat.
Apart from General Rawat and his wife, his defence adviser Brig LS Lidder and Staff Officer Lieutenant Colonel Harjinder Singh also died in the crash.
Meanwhile, Brig LS Lidder was laid to rest earlier today.
Other nine defence forces personnel who died in the chopper crash are Wing Commander Prithvi Singh Chauhan, Squadron Leader Kuldeep Singh, Junior Warrant Officer Rana Pratap Das, Junior Warrant Officer Arakkal Pradeep, Havildar Satpal Rai, Naik Gursewak Singh, Naik Jitendra Kumar, Lance Naik Vivek Kumar and Lance Naik B Sai Teja.
The bodies of the victims were flown from Sulur near Coimbatore to the Palam air base Thursday evening in caskets wrapped in the Tricolour.
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Group Captain Varun Singh, the lone survivor in the crash, has been shifted to Air Force Command hospital at Bengaluru for further treatment.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and Union Minister Smriti Irani visited Palam airbase and paid their last respects to the deceased.
The Centre has ordered a ‘tri service’ inquiry into the accident. The inquiry will be headed by Air Marshal Manvendra Singh, Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief Training Command.
According to the sources, the black box of the chopper has been recovered from the crash site.
A team of Tamil Nadu’s Forensic Science Department also visited the crash site.
