Ever since the family of Thomas Cherian, a Malayali craftsman in Indian Army who was killed in an Indian Air Force (IAF) aircraft crash in Himchal Pradesh's Rohtang Pass in 1968, lost his only available photo, they have been trying all ways to source a photo.
A day after they were informed that his mortal remains were recovered on Monday, they were in luck. Thanks to another retired soldier from Elanthoor in Pathanamthitta district, Pradeep K U. He had retired as Subedar Major in 2020. He got in touch with the Electronics and Mechanical Engineers (EME) Records, Secunderabad, Telangana, and one document with a photo of Cherian was still intact in the records office. It was in Secunderabad that Cherian had completed joining formalities and all his personal information, including photo, was being kept there. Pradeep was also posted at EME, Secunderabad, for several years.
"Cherian sir's nephew Shyju contacted me and asked if there was any way to find a photo. All the records are maintained at the EME records office and I decided to contact them. Thankfully they had one document which was not damaged. I had sent an e-mail request. They scanned the photo and sent it to me," Pradeep told Onmanorama.
The family was glad to receive the photo. "Many of the younger members in our family had not seen him. Also we lost the only photo we had when the ancestral house was demolished. We were so happy to finally receive a photo from the Army," said Shyju K Mathew, nephew of Thomas Cherian.
EME records office already contacted Pradeep after the mortal remains of Cherian were recovered. The officials had asked him to search for a name called Odalil which was mentioned in the records related to Cherian. It also contained his relatives' names. Odalil was Cherian's ancestral house name and Pradeep could trace the family. In the meantime Aranmula police were also informed by the Sainik Board and police tracked down his house and relatives.