Udaipur: People from various religions attended a condolence prayer program in Udaipur for a Catholic priest writer and a local naval officer organized by interreligious dialogue center in the tourist city of Rajasthan.
Father R H Lesser, a British national who made India home, died March 25 after a prolonged illness. He was 86.
He was buried in Udaipur on March 26.
Nnaval officer Abhinav Nagori was killed in a plane crash in Goa on March 24. He was among the two naval officers who were on a Dornier aircraft that went down on Tuesday night off the Goa coast. His was body was recovered on March 27.
He was cremated today in Udaipur on March 28. The 24-year-old had joined the Navy in July 2012 and was training to be a pilot.
The condolence prayer was organized by Sardharm Maitri Sangh (association for friendship of all religions) at St Paul’s Auditorium.
Retired Bishop Joseph Pathalil of Udaipur, educationist Ashok Kumar, a Sikh leader Sujan Singh, and a Muslim personality Sayeed Raj shared their personal interactions with Father Lesser.
Mustaq Chancha, a local poet, read his verses that hailed the Catholic priest as “an ambassador of peace, love and joy to the humanity.”
The naval officer was Lieutenant Kiran Shekhawat, 27, India’s first woman officer to die in the line of duty.
Commander Nikhil Kuldip Joshi, who was the pilot of the aircraft, was rescued by fishermen.
The last rites of Lt. Shekhawat was held at her hometown of Mewat in Haryana. Her body was found in the fuselage of the crashed aircraft on Thursday.
12 ships with naval divers and four aircraft were used to search for the wreckage of the plane which crashed during a routine sortie.
The navy uses around 32 Dornier aircraft for reconnaissance, and search and rescue operations. This is the first Dornier of the Indian Navy to crash since it was inducted into the force in the early 1990s. The ill- fated Dornier was carrying out a search and rescue exercise at night when it crashed.