Darjeeling mourns the untimely demise of its braveheart Havildar Satpal Rai along with CDS Bipin Rawat in helicopter crash

Darjeeling : The Darjeeling Hills people mourned deeply on Thursday for the untimely demise of their braveheart son Haviladar Satpal Rai in a helicopter crash along with the country’s first CSD General Bipil Rawat in Tamil Nadu on Wednesday.

Forty-one-year-old Satpal Rai, who was a personal security officer, was accompanying the Military chief when an IAF chopper carrying the Chief of Defense Staff Bipin Rawat and 13 others crashed near the upper Coonoor region at around noon on Wednesday. CDS Rawat, his wife and 11 others died in the crash, which took place in the Nilgiris, at a distance of about 10 km from the helipad where it was to land with CDS Rawat, who was to attend a cadet interaction program there.

Darjeeling MP Raju Bista and others mourned the death of Havilader Satpal Rai, who was a resident of Takdah.

” I extend my heartfelt condolences to the family of Hav. Satpal Rai. He was the Personal Security Officer (PSO) of CDS Gen. Bipin Rawat Ji. He was from Takdah in Darjeeling. I pray to God to grant his family the strength to overcome this irreparable loss,” Raju Bista said.

Havildar Satpal Rai, who was posted at the Gorkha Rifles, had telephone talks with his family members before boarding the ill-fated chopper. Satpal Rai’s son is also in the Army.

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