Team News Riveting
New Delhi, December 10
The final journey of India’s Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Bipin Rawat will start from his 3 Kamaraj Marg residence to the Brar Square crematorium where the last rites will be performed at 4 pm.
The funeral procession will start at 2 pm from the residence where the bodies of General Rawat and wife Madhulika will be kept for paying the last respect. While the civil dignitaries and citizens can pay their respect from 11 am to 12.30 pm. The slot between 12:30 pm and 1:30 pm will be kept for military personnel to pay their respects to the outstanding commander and his wife.
The last rites of Brigadier L S Lidder will be performed at the Brar Square Crematorium, Delhi Cantt at 9 am on Friday.
Besides General Rawat, his wife and Brigadier Lidder, the 10 other personnel killed in the military chopper crash near Coonoor in Tamil Nadu on Wednesday included Lt Col Harjinder Singh, Wing Commander PS Chauhan, Squadron Leader K Singh, JWO Das, JWO Pradeep A, Havildar Satpal, Naik Gursewak Singh, Naik Jitender Kumar, Lance Naik Vivek Kumar and Lance Naik Sai Teja.
The Prime Minister, Narendra Modi on Thursday might lead the Nation to pay rich tributes to CDS General Rawat and others as the bodies reached New Delhi at around 8 pm by special Indian Air Force (IAF) aircraft. The bodies were kept at the Palam airport where Modi along with Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval and top military officials paid their last respect.
Only three of the 13 bodies have been identified so that of General Rawat and his wife Madhulika Rawat and Brigadier LS Lidder. Army officials said the bodies of those identified would be handed over to the families for the last rites. The other bodies will be kept at the mortuary at the Army Base Hospital till the identification process has been completed.
The lone survivor, Group Captain Varun Singh, has been shifted to military hospital in Bengaluru. His condition is reported to be very critical.