NDRF soldier's body reaches native village

Cremation today at family request Tirupati: The body of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) soldier K Vinayakam, who was killed in a helicopter crash during rescue operations in Uttarakhand on June 25, was brought here by air on Tuesday evening. It was later taken to his native village Chinna Bandapalli, in Puthalapattu mandal of Chittoor district. After performing tests, like DNA, of the deceased and his family members, the NDRF officials confirmed it was Vinayakam. Later the Defence and NDRF team brought the body to Renigunta airport and shifted it to his village. Hundreds of students, political leaders, police personnel and officials observed two-minute silence in Renigunta and Chinna Bandapalle and paid floral tributes. Tirupati Revenue Divisional Officer Y Ramachandra Reddy, Tirupati Urban SP SV Rajasekhar, Additional SP Umamaheswara Sarma, MLAs Gali Muddukrishnama Naidu, Bojjala Gopalakrishna Reddy, were among others who paid tributes to Vinayakam at the airport. Chittoor district collector Solomon Arokiaraj and SP TK Rana took part in the procession in Chinna Bandapalli where thousands of students paid tributes. Later the collector handed over a cheque for Rs. 5 lakh to Vinayakam's family members. The district administration made all arrangements to complete the last rites by the evening itself but stopped them following a request by the family to take up the cremation on Wednesday. They said that Tuesday is inauspicious and not to complete the cremation on the same day (he died on last Tuesday). The cremation, with State honours, will take place on Wednesday afternoon.