The mortal remains of Uttarakhand’s martyr, Sepoy Narayan Singh, will return to his village after 56 years, with no direct family members left to claim him. His wife, Basanti Devi, passed away 13 years ago, in 2011. Narayan Singh is survived by his two stepsons and five stepdaughters.
The remains of Narayan Singh and four other deceased soldiers were recently discovered by the Indian Army from the Dhaka Glacier area near Leh. His body is being sent to his home in Kolpadi village, Tharali Tehsil, Chamoli district. Narayan Singh died in an Indian Air Force (IAF) aircraft crash in 1968, along with 101 other soldiers, as they were flying back to Chandigarh.
Jaiveer Singh, Narayan Singh’s stepson, informed that the body of the former Dogra Regiment soldier would reach his ancestral home on Thursday, 56 years after his death.
A letter addressed to Narayan Singh’s wife, Basanti Devi, detailed the incident: “On 7 February 1968, IAF flight AN-12-BL-534 took off from Chandigarh and reached Leh with six crew members to bring Indian Army personnel back from Leh to Chandigarh. The flight, carrying 102 passengers, encountered inclement weather while heading towards Chandigarh and crashed in the Dhaka Glacier area. Sepoy Narayan Singh was among the passengers.”
According to Jaiveer Singh, the crash occurred near Rohtang Pass in Himachal Pradesh. All 102 personnel aboard the ill-fated IAF aircraft perished in the crash. No bodies were found until recently, when a search team from the Indian Army unearthed the remains of four soldiers from beneath the snow.
In addition to Narayan Singh, the other soldiers identified are Makhan Singh from Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh, Munshi Ram from Rewari, Haryana, and Thomas Cherin from Kollam, Kerala.
Reports indicate that the bodies had been preserved under the deep snow but were beginning to decompose. “We will receive the body tomorrow as it has arrived in Rudraprayag from Chandigarh,” said Jaiveer Sin
h, who is also the village panchayat head of Kolpadi.
It is significant to note that Narayan Singh was married to Basanti Devi, but the couple had no children at the time of his death.
“After the IAF aircraft crash, the Indian Army officially declared Narayan Singh missing to his father and Basanti Devi. My mother, Basanti Devi, told us that she waited for Narayan Singh to return, but he never did. Later, our grandfather and other family members adopted my father, Bhuwan Singh, Narayan Singh’s cousin. Eventually, my brother, my five sisters, and I were born here,” explained Jaiveer, who will perform Narayan Singh’s last rites. Jaiveer also mentioned that his father, Bhuwan Singh, passed away in 2018.
Jaiveer further revealed that his mother never received any compensation from the Indian Army or the government following Narayan Singh’s death. “He was no less than our father, and now we demand that the Indian Army and the state government provide the compensation that my mother deserved while she was alive.”