Bengaluru, Oct 30 A Bengaluru Police inspector was among five people from Karnataka who were killed when a helicopter crashed at Joshimath in Uttarakhand on Friday, with the government coordinating with Uttarakhand authorities to bring the mortal remains of the victims back to the state at the earliest.
The five passengers who died in the accident are: Prathapa, a businessman from Hassan; Arun Salunke, an inspector with the Central Crime Branch of Bengaluru Police; advocates Shankar Gowda and Sudheer K; and H S Natraja, a poultry businessman. Pilot of the helicopter, Capt. Himanshu, also died.
According to a statement from the Karnataka State Disaster Management Authority and Social Security and Pensions, the CMO and the Relief Commissioner are coordinating with their counterparts in Uttarakhand to facilitate the transportation of the mortal remains to Karnataka at the earliest.
“The Office of the Resident Commissioner, Karnataka Bhavan, is also in close coordination with the Uttarakhand authorities,” it said.
“As per the information received from the Uttarakhand State Emergency Operations Centre (SEOC), a civil helicopter operated by Trans Bharat Aviation, carrying one pilot and five passengers from Karnataka, crashed at approximately 2 PM on Friday in the hilly terrain of the Hathi Parvat area while travelling from Badrinath to Dehradun,” it said.
On receiving the information, the Uttarakhand authorities mobilised teams from the Army, SDRF, ITBP, Police, Health Department and District Disaster Management authorities to undertake search and rescue operations, it said.
The rescue teams have recovered the mortal remains of all six persons, including the pilot, and they were being brought to Joshimath for post-mortem, the statement said.
Karnataka Chief Minister D K Shivakumar said the tragic news of the helicopter crash in Uttarakhand’s Chamoli district on its way to Dehradun, resulting in the death of the Delhi-origin pilot and five passengers from Karnataka, has caused profound shock and sorrow.
“May the souls of those who lost their lives in this accident attain eternal peace. I pray that God grant strength to the bereaved families to bear this immense grief,” he said in a post on ‘X’.
Shivakumar said that discussions are underway with Uttarakhand officials to bring the bodies to Karnataka as soon as possible, and the state government stands in solidarity with the families of the deceased.
Deputy Chief Minister G Parameshwara also expressed his condolences to the bereaved families.
“All kinds of assistance will be provided to the families of the deceased,” he said on ‘X’.
Taking to ‘X’, Home Minister Priyank Kharge said that the news that Kannadigas have died in the helicopter crash in Uttarakhand was extremely heartbreaking.
“The fact that Arun Salunke, a CCB Inspector who had gone on a trip, has lost his life in this tragedy is an extremely painful matter for the Police Department,” he said.
He said that he prays for peace for the souls of those who perished in this tragedy. He expressed condolences to the grieving families.
According to a senior police officer, Inspector Salunke, a 2007 batch officer, had applied for three days’ leave from October 28 to visit Badrinath.
He was a native of Artal village in Athani Taluk of Belagavi district and resided with his wife and two children in Bengaluru.
Salunke had served at Nelamangala, Kunigal and Banaswadi before going to the CCB.
The news of his death has plunged his native village into grief and sent shockwaves across the region.
The other deceased, Gowda and Nataraj, hailed from Tumakuru district, while Sudheer hailed from Bengaluru and Prathapa, who hailed from Hassan, had also shot a selfie video after boarding the chopper.
Speaking to reporters in Tumakuru, Narasimha Murthy, father-in-law of Shankar Gowda, said he had not received any official information about the incident and came to know about it only through television.
“Nobody has contacted me so far. I don’t know anything about the trip either. My daughter told me in the morning that he would be coming today,” he said.
Murthy said that his son-in-law, an advocate practising in the High Court, used to go to court every day and recalled that he met him last week.
Madhu, a neighbour of Gowda, recalled his close friendship with Salunke, saying the two were inseparable and would always travel together.
“Arun sir and Shankar Gowda shared a very close bond. They were very good friends and always went on trips together. Arun sir had also visited our house several times,” she told PTI Videos.
Recalling Gowda as a warm-hearted and helpful person, she said he was actively involved in social service, voluntarily contributing to neighbourhood celebrations, arranging for vacant plots to be cleaned for children’s safety and distributing firecrackers among children during Diwali.
“He was always smiling and cheerful. He used to tell us that life was very short and that we should always be happy. Such a good person shouldn’t have met with such a tragic end,” she said.
Union Minister H D Kumaraswamy, in a post on X, said that he was deeply saddened to learn that five Kannadigas and a pilot lost their lives in the tragic incident in Uttarakhand.
(PTI News)
