Col. Biplab Tripathi’s parents had returned from Manipur to meet him less than a week ago. Subhash Tripathi (80) and wife Asha (70) had traveled from their hometowns Raigarh Left on 7 November to celebrate Diwali with Colonel and his family in eastern Chhattisgarh.
Tripathi is famous in the area. Viplav’s grandfather Kishori Lal Tripathi was part of the drafting committee of the Indian Constitution, while Subhash is a senior journalist and editor of a Raigad-based regional weekly. Asha is a social worker.
Friends say that Viplav was a humble and respectable person. For their wedding, the bagpiper band of the armed forces had come to Raigad to perform, he recalled.
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Viplav’s uncle Rajesh Patnaik said the Assam Rifles officer had not got leave for Diwali. Since his younger brother Anay is also posted in Manipur with the Assam Rifles, Subhash and Asha decided to move to Manipur as lieutenant colonels.
On Friday night, Anay drove to Raigad on his way from Manipur to Mhow for training. “On Saturday afternoon, he was with me when he got a message from his friends in the unit that his brother and his family had been murdered,” Patnaik said.
Friends told that Anay has gone back to Manipur and will return with the bodies of the Colonel, his wife and son. The body is expected to reach by Sunday morning.
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