New Delhi: Vice Admiral Srikant died on Tuesday morning at the base hospital here due to COVID-19-related complications, officials said.
The vice admiral, the Navy’s senior-most submariner, was due to retire on December 31.
Expressing his condolences, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh tweeted, “Deeply pained at the untimely and sudden demise of Director General Seabird, Vice Admiral Srikant.”
The Ministry of Defence and the Indian Navy will always remember his stellar contributions and remarkable service to the nation, Singh said.
“My deepest condolences to his bereaved family and friends. Om Shanti!” the minister stated.
Srikant was admitted at the base hospital in Delhi after he contracted COVID-19, said a junior Navy officer who had worked under him.
Subsequently, the vice admiral tested had negative for COVID-19 on Sunday morning, but developed breathing difficulties by evening, the officer said.
“He was shifted to ICU and was subsequently put on a ventilator,” the officer mentioned.
Officials said the vice admiral, who was the Navy’s senior-most submariner, died on Tuesday morning.
Previously, he had held charge as Inspector General of Nuclear Safety and Commandant of the National Defence College, officials said.
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RIP Sir.
You have been a stellar model and won many an ardent admirer like me for your erudite style of working. So meticulous in your methods and so articulate in expressions, that you could always drive home your point of view so effortlessly. Firm yet considerate, every moment in your company was a learning experience indeed. It is not that the Navy lost an exemplary officer, I shall definitely miss a very dependable mentor that I had found in you. May your bereaved family muster all the courage to withstand this calamity that has befallen them so untimely.
Total respect for people who work like this. Putting their lives at risk to protect the Nation. May God bless you and your families.
RIP Sir!
Although all servicepersons do a great job, submarining is a class apart — you have to go on tours of duty under water for months on end (if nuclear, then much longer) — imagine the no sunlight, always in confined cabins, no privacy living on high-risk for the entire duration (the batteries, fumes, and the hard discipline).