The mortal remains of Colonel Viplav Tripathi, his wife and son, who were killed in a militant attack in Manipur two days back, were brought to their hometown Raigarh in Chhattisgarh on Monday, officials said. Colonel Tripathi, the Commanding Officer of Khuga Battalion of the Assam Rifles, his wife Anuja (36), son Abeer (5) and four personnel of the paramilitary force were killed in an ambush by militants in the north-eastern state on Saturday.
A special plane of the Indian Air Force carrying mortal remains of the martyred colonel, his wife and son, landed at an airstrip in Raigarh at 12:42 pm, an official here said. Col Viplav Tripathi’s younger brother, Lieutenant Colonel Anay Tripathi, state’s Higher Education Minister Umesh Patel, Raigarh MP Gomti Sai, local MLAs, district administration and police officials were present at the airstrip, he said.
From there, the bodies were taken in an open flower-decked truck to Colonel Tripathi’s home here. The mortal remains will later be kept at the Ramleela ground for the public to pay homage, he said. The final rites will be held in the evening at a crematorium near Circuit House with full military and state honours, the official said.
Meanwhile, the Raigarh town observed a spontaneous bandh as a mark of respect to the martyred soldier. A large number of people turned up at Colonel Tripathi’s house to pay tributes to him. Colonel R S Thakur of the Assam Rifles, four other officers and 45 personnel, who reached Raigarh on Sunday evening, visited Colonel Tripathi’s house to express condolences to the bereaved family members. Col Tripathi’s father Subhash Tripathi is a senior journalist and editor of local Hindi daily ‘Dainik Bayar’.
Colonel Tripathi was inspired by his freedom fighter grandfather Kishori Mohan Tripathi, who was also a member of the Constituent Assembly, a family member had said. Kishori Mohan Tripathi died in 1994 when Viplav Tripathi was 14. It was his grandfather who inspired him to don the Army uniform, his maternal uncle Rajesh Patnaik told PTI.
In 2001, he was commissioned as a lieutenant in the Kumaon Regiment in Ranikhet, he said.
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