CHENNAI: On Tuesday, former Chief of Army Staff General Sundararajan Padmanabhan was cremated with full military honours at the Besant Nagar crematorium.

Senior Defence officials, including Vice Admiral Ravi Kumar Dhingra, Flag Officer Commanding, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry (FOTNA), Indian Navy; Lieutenant General Karanbir Singh Brar, General Officer Commanding, Indian army headquarters Dakshin Bharat Area (GOC DB area); Air Officer Commanding, Air Force Station, Tambaram; Southern Army Command representatives, veterans, Rashtriya Military College students and his relatives placed wreaths and paid floral tributes to the mortal remains of late General S Padmanabhan.

The mortal remains of the former CAS were carried in an Army vehicle from his house at Adyar to Besant Nagar crematorium, where the last rites were performed with a 21-gun salute. Padmanabhan passed away on Monday at 83 at his residence in Adyar here.

He assumed the charge as the 20th Chief of Army Staff of the Indian Army on September 30, 2000. Born on December 5, 1940, in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, he is an alumnus of the prestigious Rashtriya Indian Military College (RIMC), Dehradun and the National Defence Academy (NDA), Khadakwasla in Pune. He was commissioned into the Regiment of Artillery after graduating from the Indian Military Academy (IMA) on December 13, 1959.