Gen Bipin Rawat's daughters collect ashes, to immerse them in Haridwar

Daughters of India's first chief of defence staff General Bipin Rawat and his wife Madhulika Rawat on Saturday collected the ashes of their parents from a crematorium in Delhi.

The family has said the ashes of Gen Rawat and Madhulika Rawat, who were cremated on the same funeral pyre at the Brar Square crematorium, will be immersed in the Ganga in Haridwar in Uttarakhand later in the day.

"We will pick the ashes early morning tomorrow in a 'kalash' and then head to Haridwar, where the ashes will be immersed in the holy Ganga and some rituals will be performed," Yash Vardhan Singh, brother-in-law of General Rawat, told sources on Friday after their cremation.

"Minister of State for Defence Ajay Bhatt and several other senior dignitaries from the state will be present on the occasion," a person familiar with the matter told sources.

General Bipin Rawat's daughters Kritika and Tarini performed the last rites of their father in a sombre military ceremony alongside their mother Madhulika Rawat on Friday, two days after they and 11 armed forces personnel were killed in a helicopter crash in Coonoor in Tamil Nadu.

Apart from Gen Rawat and his wife, and defence adviser Brigadier LS Lidder, his staff officer Lieutenant Colonel Harjinder Singh, 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 also died in the Coonoor chopper crash.

Group Captain Varun Singh, the only survivor in the crash, is being treated at the Air Force Command hospital in Bengaluru, where he is said to be critical but stable.