Brother's portrait taken out in soldier's funeral procession

Family, authorities blame each other for goof-up

In an embarrassing goof-up, the portrait of Harish, the brother of CRPF soldier N Satish, who was gunned down in a militant attack in Srinagar, was taken in a funeral procession on Friday, before red-faced officials rectified it, as thousands of people paid homage to the soldier before his body was laid to rest.

Satish was killed in Wednesday’s suicide attack on a CRPF camp in Srinagar,
The procession proceeded from Mandya to Satish’s village Alambadi after his body was kept for public homage.

However, the embarrassing lapse was soon noticed after Satish’s relatives, including his uncle Anand, pointed out that the photo used was not that of Satish, but instead of his brother, Harish — also serving with the CRPF in Madhya Pradesh.

The error left district officials and his family blaming each other for the mix-up. Mandya Deputy Commissioner B N Krishnaiah, however, said the portrait was provided by Satish’s family and there was no lapse on the part of the district administration.

As the procession continued, Satish’s portrait was finally brought. With thousands of people present, the fallen jawan was later laid to rest with State honours at the land owned by his parents in Alambadi.

His body was cremated as per Hindu customs. Satish’s mother Savithramma, grandmother Lakshmamma and brother Harish offered tributes to the soldier, as the slogan ‘Bharat Mata ki jai, Satish amar rahe,’ rent the air.

In another embarrassing development, a private hospital in Mandya refused to keep Satish’s body in the ICU. The body had been brought from Bangalore in the wee hours, in cold storage for three hours from 3 am to 6 am.

As a reason for its refusal, the hospital claimed that doing so would cause an inconvenience to other patients.

The mortal remains could not be kept at the hospital of the Mandya Institute of Medical Sciences as the air-conditioning facility had gone out of order. The body was then kept in the air-conditioned room of the travellers’ bungalow.

Minister A Ramdas, who along with his Cabinet colleague Suresh Kumar earlier paid homage to Satish, said action would be taken against the hospital.

Ramdas also announced that a 2,400-sq ft site in Mandya would be provided to Satish’s family.