Daijiworld Media Network - Beltangady (SP)

Beltangady, Sep 19: Suresh Shetty, an army official from Kannur working for Defence Cell, visited the house of Eknath Shetty from Guruvayanakere, who went missing with several others after the IAF AN-32 aircraft bound for Port Blair from Chennai mysteriously went out of the radar and went missing along with 21 army personnel, six crew members, and two family members on July 22 this year, on Sunday September 18. Suresh Shetty was here to collect documents relating to Eknath to be able to extend benefits to which he is eligible from the army.

After going through several records, he gathered some and requested the family to procure more documents required as per procedure. The official is expected to visit Guruvayanakere again on Monday, besides visiting the native place of Eknath, Kuthar near Mangaluru, for procuring more papers.

Suresh said that once all the needed documents are collected, they will be furnished to the army court for further processes. He said that various teams have been scouting for the missing aircraft and people travelling in it, but strangely, for the first time, no information about the fate of the aircraft, its crew and passengers, or wreckage, are available. He said that if anything that the army may find during the search will be bouught with army honours to the house of the concerned for handing them over. If they are not available, his clothes etc will be given to family members in the presence of tahsildar, and death certificate will also be delivered on that day, he narrated.

Wife of the soldier, Jayanthi, children, family members, ex-servicemen, M R Jain and Gopalakrishna Bhat, as well as zilla panchayat member, Mamata M Shetty were present.