Martyred IAF officer’s parents seek change in govt policy

Dehradun, April 10: The parents of Squadron Leader Abhimanyu Rai, who died in a trainer jet crash, say they were ignored for entitlements and honours that went exclusively to their daughter-in-law and are demanding a change in government policy.

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A pilot in the IAF, 33-year-old Squadron Leader Rai died in a plane crash December 4, 2023, near the Air Force Academy in Hyderabad while training a foreign cadet. He was flying a Pilatus PC-7 MarkIl aircraft, a trainer jet, with a foreign cadet under his training when it crashed near the Academy kill-ing both of them.

Group Captain Amitabh Rai (retd) and his wife Chitralekha said they lost their only son Abhimanyu in December, 2023 but they have not received even a word of condolence from the government so far.

They feel the policy for such cases needs to be tweaked to accommodate the parents of the martyred bravehearts apart from their wives.

“We know of at least a dozen parents of martyrs who have been ignored when it came to according entitlements, which went exclusively to their wives,” Chitralekha told PTI in an exclusive interview here Wednesday.

“One year and three months have passed since we suffered the worst tragedy of our life, los-ing our only son ina trainer jet crash near the Air Force Acad-emy in Hyderabad. But we did not receive even a word of con-dolence to date from either the prime minister or the defence minister,” Amitabh Rai said.