Bodies of the two naval officers from Assam, who were in the Indian Navy’s kilo-class submarine INS Sindhurakshak which sank at the naval dockyard in Mumbai on August 14 after explosion, were brought to their home state here on Wednesday.
Naval Engineer Narottam Deuri’s body was received at the Gopinath Bardoloi International Airport at Borjhar here with honour by Navy, Army and Air force officials on Wednesday. It will be sent to his home at Narayanpur in Lakhimpur district by road for the last rites on Thursday.
The body of the other naval personnel Petty Officer Timothy Sinha, attached to the Underwater Unit 1, was received in his native place Silchar by Cachar district administration for the last rites on Wednesday.
At Borjhar, the ethnic Deuri Jatiya Sangathan and Deuri Students Union strongly protested the absence of state government ministers or officials to receive Deuri’s body.
Accusing Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi and civil organisations of dishonouring the naval officer who sacrificed his life for the country and state by their absence, the Deuri organisations claimed that no proper vehicle but only an ambulance was sent by the government to take the body to its native place.
The bodies of the two crew members recovered from the sunken submarine were so badly charred that the Navy identified them after conducting DNA tests with samples from their families, official sources said.
Deuri had joined the Indian Navy in 2010 and was posted in Mumbai last year, while Timothy had joined INS Sindhurakshak in July last after graduating from Cachar College in his hometown Silchar.
The submarine had sunk on August 14 last after multiple blasts in Mumbai naval dockyard that claimed the lives of 18 navy personnel there.
