Bhopal, December 16 | Group Captain Varun Singh, a survivor of a helicopter crash in Tamil Nadu, died on Wednesday at a military hospital in Bengaluru, with his body arriving at the Bhopal airport on Thursday afternoon.
Military officials and political leaders paid homage to the ornate air warrior at Bhopal’s Raja Bhoj airport and after that his body was taken to his home in Sun City Garden.
According to the information, the last rites will be performed at Bairagarh crematorium on Friday morning. The local administration had planned the last rites at Bhadbhada crematorium, but Varun Singh’s father requested the district administration to make arrangements for the last rites at Bairagarh crematorium, citing traffic jams.
Singh had suffered serious injuries in a helicopter crash near Coonoor in Tamil Nadu, which resulted in the death of Chief of Defense Staff (CDS) General Bipin Rawat, his wife and 11 armed forces personnel on 8 December.
Singh was awarded the Shaurya Chakra, India’s third highest peacetime gallantry award, in August this year after his Tejas aircraft developed a technical fault during a flight.
Singh’s parents are originally from Uttar Pradesh, although they have been living in Bhopal for the past several years. Singh’s father Colonel KP Singh (Retd) and his younger brother are serving in the Indian Navy.
Singh got married in January 2008 after meeting Geetanjali while she was studying in a college in Pune. The couple has two children – a son and a daughter.
Earlier in the day, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan announced a ‘Samman Nidhi’ of Rs 1 crore to the kin of the officer. “The State Government will give one crore rupees as Samman Nidhi to the family of martyr Group Captain Varun Singh and in consultation with them, will install his statue here, name an institution after him and offer jobs to his next of kin in the State Government, As per the prescribed exercise,” Chauhan said.
Source: IANS