Locals showered petals as ambulances carrying mortal remains of CDS Bipin Rawat passed

Dec. 9: Locals showered flower petals as ambulances carrying the mortal remains of Chief of Defence Staff Gen Bipin Rawat, his wife and other personnel who died in the Coonoor Helicopter Crash, leave for Sulur airbase from Madras Regimental Centre in Nilgiris district, Tamil Nadu on Thursday. Thousands of people queued on both sides of the road through which the ambulances carrying the mortal remains of the brave-hearts passed. They raised slogans of long live the martyrs and showed flower petals.

Chief of Defence Staff Gen Bipin Rawat, his wife and 11 other persons died in the Air Force chopper that crashed between Coimbatore and Sulur in Tamil Nadu on Wednesday afternoon. Indian Air Force in a tweet later on informed, “Gen Bipin Rawat, Mrs Madhulika Rawat and 11 other persons on board have died in the unfortunate accident. It was further informed that “Gp Capt Varun Singh SC, Directing Staff at DSSC with injuries is currently under treatment at Military Hospital, Wellington.”

Sources revealed that the cremation of CDS Gen Bipin Rawat and his wife Madhulika Rawat will be done on 10 December in Delhi cantonment. Their mortal remains are expected to arrive in the national capital in a military plane on Thursday evening. The bodies would be brought to his house on Friday and people would be allowed to pay respect from 11 AM to 2 PM,followed by a funeral procession which will start from Kamraj Marg to Brar Square crematorium in Delhi cantonment.

Gen Rawat was India’s first chief of defence staff, a position that was established in 2019.

Here is the list of people who were on board the chopper that crashed:

• Gen Bipin Rawat
• Madhulika Rawat
• Brig LS Lidder, SM,VSM
• Lt Col Harjinder Singh
• Wg Cdr PS Chauhan
• Sqn Ldr K Singh
• JWO Das
• JWO Pradeep A
• Hav Satpal
• NK Gursewak Singh
• NK Jitender Kumar
• Vivek Kumar
• L/Nk Sai Teja