Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin, Telangana Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan and military personnel among others on Thursday paid floral tributes to Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat and 12 others killed in an Indian Air Force (IAF) helicopter crash at Coonoor on December 8.
The mortal remains of General Rawat and the others were later taken to Coimbatore by road from where they would be flown to New Delhi.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh informed the Parliament the last rites of India's first CDS will be performed with full military honours.
The final rites of the other personnel who died in the crash will also be conducted with appropriate military honours, he said.
On Thursday, Stalin, Soundararajan, state ministers, senior Army officials and its veterans laid wreaths and paid floral tributes to the mortal remains of the deceased persons at the Madras Regimental Centre at Wellington. A Guard of Honour was also given to the departed.
The mortal remains of the crash victims in caskets wrapped in the Indian tricolour were brought to the venue earlier in decorated army trucks.
Stalin, seen wearing a black muffler, laid a wreath and paid floral tributes to General Rawat and others and later briefly spoke to the Army brass present there. His cabinet colleagues K.N. Nehru, M.P. Saminathan and K. Ramachandran, senior state government and police officials and Army personnel among others also paid tributes to the crash victims.
General Rawat (63), his wife Madhulika Rawat and 11 others were killed in the helicopter crash on Wednesday.
