Varun had big plans in Indore

Bhopal: IAF Group Captain Varun Singh, who died at a military hospital in Bengaluru after surviving a chopper crash last week, had wished to visit Indore this month-end to celebrate his Shaurya Chakra honour, but it will now remain unfulfilled, an acquaintance said on Thursday. Meanwhile, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Thursday said the state government will give a ‘Samman Nidhi’ of Rs 1 crore to the kin of the officer.

Group Captain Singh was conferred with the Shaurya Chakra, India’s third highest peacetime gallantry award, in August this year for averting a possible mid-air accident after his Tejas light combat aircraft was hit by a major technical problem last year. The decorated air warrior died in Bengaluru on Wednesday, a week after he was seriously injured in the chopper crash near Coonoor in Tamil Nadu, that killed Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat, his wife and 11 other armed forces personnel.

His father Colonel K P Singh (retired) and mother are residents of MP’s capital city Bhopal.

Group Captain Varun Singh used to visit his wife Geetanjali’s parental home in Indore every year. This time, he was scheduled to visit Indore around December-end to throw a party to celebrate the Shaurya Chakra honour, Daljit Singh Gurudatta (70), a neighbour of his father, said. “But, as fate would have it, he was on board the ill-fated chopper (that crashed last week) as the liaison officer for the visit of Gen Rawat to the Defence Services Staff College in Wellington,” he said.—(PTI)