Nirmala Sitharaman, General Bipin Rawat pay homage to slain soldier Capt Kapil Kundu

Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Army chief Gen Bipin Rawat today paid homage to Captain Kapil Kundu, who was killed in heavy Pakistani shelling along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir.

The mortal remains of the officer, who died in the line of duty yesterday, barely six days before his 23rd birthday, was flown to Delhi in a Dornier aircraft.

Nirmala paid respects by laying a wreath on the tricolour-wrapped coffin, which was laid at the Palam Air Force Base after the aircraft reached around 6:20 PM.

#CaptainKapilKundu & 3 brave soldiers of the Indian Army were martyred in a ceasefire violation by Pakistan in Rajouri Sector last night. Smt @nsitharaman along with General Bipin Rawat pays respects by laying a wreath on the mortal remains of #CaptainKapilKundu pic.twitter.com/4iCS1zTAwx

— Raksha Mantri (@DefenceMinIndia) February 5, 2018

Earlier, Minister of State for Defence Subhash Bhamre and Rawat also paid tributes to the soldier of the 15 Jammu and Kashmir Light Infantry (JAKLI), by laying wreaths.

The defence minister later met the sister and other family members of Kundu, who had arrived in Delhi, to take the body of the officer to his hometown in Haryana.

His body was later carried in an ambulance, on way to his Ransika village in Pataudi in Gurgaon district.

Besides Kundu, Havildar Roshan Lal, 42, a resident of Samba district, Jammu and Kashmir, Riflemen Ramavatar, 27, of Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh, and Subham Singh, 23, of Jammu and Kashmir's Kathua district were also killed in the shelling.

"The body of Ramavatar was sent to Gwalior," a defence official said.