Army officer\'s mortal remains received in Hyderabad with military honours

Hyderabad: The mortal remains of Lt. Col. V. Vinay Bhanu Reddy, who died in a helicopter crash along with an Army pilot, Major Jayanth A. in Arunachal Pradesh on Thursday, was received with military honours at the Air Force Station in Begumpet at 9 pm on Friday.

Officers paid tribute and placed a wreath during a brief ceremony. Later, the mortal remains of Lt. Col. Reddy was taken to his native place Bommalaramaram in Yadadri Bhuvanagiri district, by road.

The final rites are likely to be performed at Yadadri on Saturday. Chief of army staff Gen. Manoj Pande, along with Lt Gen Nav Kumar Khanduri, GOC, western command, will be present for the final rites.

Lt Col Reddy is survived by wife Spandana, a dentist in the army, and daughters aged six and four. Dr Spandana, who is posted at AFMC in Pune, flew to Tezpur to receive her husband’s body. The 41-year-old officer's parents along with granddaughters reached Hyderabad from Pune.

Lt Col Vinay Bhanu Reddy had joined NDA at the age of 17 years and was commissioned into the army in 2007.

His father Narasimha Reddy had moved to Hyderabad several years ago to work in Republic Forge company but later moved to his village for farming. The family was living in Malkajgiri.

Lt Col Reddy and Major Jayanth were in the single-engine Cheetah helicopter when it crashed near Mandala in West Kameng district of Arunachal Pradesh when they were in an operational sortie between Missamari in Assam's Sonitpur and Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh.

The mortal remains of Major Jayanth reached his native place in Madurai on Friday night.