General Bipin Rawat had last visited his native village in Pauri, Uttarakhand in 2018 and had plans to build a house there after his retirement, his uncle recalled, hours after a helicopter crash killed India's first Chief of Defence Staff near Coonoor in Tamil Nadu on Wednesday.

His uncle Bharat Singh Rawat (70) had gone to Kotdwar for some work but returned home as soon as he heard about the accident.