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Missing soldier Eknath Shetty’s personal effects handed over to family

Belthangady: The personal effects of Subedar Eknath Shetty, who was onboard the missing AN-32 aircraft of the Indian Air Force, were handed over to his family today at his Guruvayanakere residence by defence and state police personnel after paying due homage to the presumably dead soldier.

The personal effects were flown in a special military flight from Port Blair today morning and were first brought to the district SP’s office in Mangaluru where those present paid due respects.

Mangaluru MP Nalin Kumar Kateel, district in-charge minister Ramanath Rai, SP Borase and personnel from the military and police were present on the occasion.

Later the belongings, including the uniform, were taken to Punjalkatte police station in a police jeep.

Soldier Eknath Shetty’s belongings were handed over to his wife Jayanthi by senior retired IAF officer Surendra in the presence of SP Borase, Tahsildar Puttaswamy and MLA Shakuntala Shetty. Many locals came forward to offer their homages on the occasion.

A convoy of nearly 250 vehicles participated in the procession of moving the Subedar’s belongings moved from Punjalkatte police station to his residence.

Eknath Shetty was among the 29 people onboard the Indian air force aircraft AN-32 that went missing on July 22. Despite a massive search operation undertaken by the Navy, IAF, and Coast Guard there was no trace of the missing plane. Later the IAF officials had communicated to the kin of personnel on the missing AN-32 plane that those on-board have been presumed dead.

Subedar Ekanath Shetty of The Madras Regimental Centre Wellington joined the Army in 1985. Though his service in army ended in 2009, he got a call from the air force to join its defence security wing. In this unit, he had served at places like Kannur, Goa and Kanpur before getting posted at Port Blair.