DEHRADUN/BHOPAL: Saina village in Uttarakhand and Sohagpur Riyasat in Shahdol district of Madhya Pradesh were united in grief on Weednesday.
Late CDS General Bipin Rawat hailed from the village in Uttarakhand’s Birmoli Gram Sabha. His wife Madhulika was from the erstwhile royal family of Sohagpur Riyasat. They were married in 1985.
General Rawat was building a house in Silver Heights Colony in Dehradun. ‘Bhoomipoojan’ was done a week ago by his wife Madhulika. After news of the helicopter crash broke, construction on the site stopped.
Bharat Singh Rawat, a distant uncle of General Rawat, recalls the day when people of the village of celebrated his elevation to the post of CDS. As news of the fatal crash reached the village, gloom descended on the people of the area.
The CDS had visited his village after taking over as the chief of the Indian Army in 2016 and also in 2018. "He told me he wanted to build a house near mine. He said he would request the government to build a motorable road connecting the village," recalled Bharat, who served the Indian Army as a havaldar.
Madhulika's father Kunwar Mrigendra Singh was the Riyasatdar of Sohagpur and also a Congress MLA in 1967 and 1972.
General Rawat’s brother-in-law Yashvardhan Singh was in Bhopal on Wednesday with her daughter who is taking part in a national-level shooting competition. "The army asked us to reach Delhi urgently. This suggested that something very serious had happened. I and my wife are flying to Delhi from Bhopal," said Singh.
Singh recounted that recently the couple had promised to visit Shahdol in the new year. As fate would have it, that trip is never going to materialise.
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