Four hours earlier the helicopter was carrying him and 13 others, including the Chief of Defense Staff General Bipin Rawat and his wife Madhulika Rawat, 27-year-old Lance Nayak B Sai Teja, who crashed near Coonoor in Tamil Nadu, made a video call to his wife in Chittoor, Andhra Pradesh.
Teja, who was among 13 people killed in the accident, is survived by wife Syamala, a housewife, two children aged 5 and 2 and parents.
His father B Mohan, a farmer from Regadapalle village in Chittoor district, says Teja, who had joined the army in 2012 during a recruitment drive. GunturIn 2016 11 Paras joined and about seven months back Gen Rawat was appointed as Personal Security Officer (PSO).
“He always wanted to join the army and started preparing for it after 10th standard. He used to run and exercise 10 km every morning. He continued this practice even when he came home on leave. He had a great love for the army. He was also a cricketer and used to play in local tournaments,” he says, adding that Teja attended a village school till class 10 and completed her graduation from Guntur.
Mohan says he and his wife B Bhuvaneshwari shuttle between the village in Chittoor district and the town of Madanapalle, where Teja took his wife and children last year so they could go to a better school.
Teja’s younger brother B Mahesh is also in the army.
Teja, says Mohan, had last come home on a month-long leave in September and was to come again the next month for a short break during Sankranti.
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