Fifty-six years after his death, the body of soldier Narayan Singh will reach his ancestral village in Chamoli district of Uttarakhand on Thursday, and will be received by his extended family.
Narayan was one of the four crew members on board the Indian Air Force AN-12 transport plane that crashed into snow-covered mountains near Rohtang in Himachal Pradesh on February 7, 1968. The plane carried 102 passengers, including the crew.?
A joint team of Dogra Scouts of the Indian Army, in collaboration with representatives of Tiranga Mountain Rescue, recovered the remains of four individuals from the crash site, almost 16,000 ft. above seal level near Dhaka glacier, earlier this week.
According to the officials in the Indian Army involved in the mission, Narayan was a sepoy with the Army Medical Corps (AMC). His body was identified by a paybook found in his pocket. From records, his address at Kolpudi village in Chamoli was traced and his extended family informed about his mortal remains being brought for last rites.
Jaiveer Singh, Narayan’s stepson, told The Hindu that he died a couple of years after his marriage with Basanti Devi. Narayan used to visit his wife once a year and the only communication the couple had was through letters which too were read by someone else to Basanti, who was unlettered. The couple had no children. Narayan was the lone child of his parents.
In February 1968, the family was informed through a telegram in English that Narayan was missing after the crash. The family kept waiting for news about him for the next few years but to no avail.
“狈补谤补测补苍ji’s parents did not want to see my mother [Basanti] spend the rest of her life as a widow and arranged for her wedding with my dad Bhawan Singh, who was Narayanji’s first cousin,” said Mr. Jaiveer.
Mr. Jaiveer recalls how his mother, who died in 2011, had shared memories of Narayan with her seven children, born from her marriage with Bhawan. He died in 2018.
“She used to tell me how he looked and spoke. Unfortunately, we don’t have any photos of him so we will have to go by the credentials shared by the Army,” said Mr. Jaiveer, who wasn’t ready to receive the body of Narayan initially, but later decided to accept it in memory of his late mother.
“I want to ask the Indian Army why my mother never received any compensation or pension. If she had some money for survival, she might have not remarried,” he says.
The mortal remains of two other persons found at the crash site have also been identified: Malkhan Singh, a sepoy from Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh who was identified by a voucher in his pocket, and Thomas Charan, a Craftsman with the Army’s Corps of Electronics and Mechanical Engineers, who hailed from Elanthoor, Pathanamthitta district in Kerala. Malkhan’s wife Shilawati and son Ram Prasad are no more. His grandchildren, who work as daily wagers, took a day off to visit the village to perform the last rites of their grandfather. The last rites were carried out with full military honours. In case of Charan, his mother Eleama has been informed of the discovery.
While documents recovered from the fourth body have not conclusively identified the individual, details of his next of kin were found, said the Army official, who added that the deceased’s wife Parvati Devi and his father Netram have been notified.
For decades, the wreckage and remains of the victims had been lost in the icy terrain. The discovery of the wreckage in 2003 by mountaineers from the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Institute of Mountaineering sparked new interest in the crash. Indian Army, especially the Dogra Scouts, has been at the forefront of various search missions since then, including those in 2005, 2006, 2013, and 2019.
Owing to the treacherous and unforgiving terrain, only five bodies were recovered till 2019. However, the Chandra Bhaga Mountain Expedition has now recovered four more bodies, bringing renewed hope to the families of the deceased and the nation.
“The Chandra Bhaga Expedition has once again demonstrated the Indian Army’s relentless determination to bring closure to families, even after half a century,” the officials said adding that the search for the remains of other passengers continues as the expedition, which is being undertaken from September 25 to October 10, persists in its noble mission.
Published - October 02, 2024 09:32 pm IST
