Gallantry Awards, Awardees and Acts of Gallantry

New Delhi, Aug 14: As many as three Ashok Chakras, awarded for exceptional gallantry during peacetime, have been bestowed upon security personnel, who laid down their lives protecting the sovereignty and integrity of the country, on the occasion of Independence Day 2007. Besides, six Kirti Chakras, of them four posthumous, have been awarded on the occasion, it was officially announced here today.

Significantly, half of the six Kirti Chakras have been awarded to civilians, all posthumously.

Also 20 Shaurya Chakras have been awarded to the Armed Forces personnel and others on the occasion.

This year, Ashok Chakras have been awarded to Colonel Vasanth Venugopal of 9 Maratha Light Infantry, Capt Harshan R of the 2 Parachute Regiment (Special Forces) and Naib Subedar Chunni Lal of 8 Jammu and Kashmir Light Infantry -- all posthumously.

Col Vasanth Venugopal was the commanding officer of his battalion deployed along the Line of Control in Uri Sector of J&K. On July 31 last, he personally took command of a body of troops to intercept a group of terrorists who were attempting to escape back across the Line of Control.

Out-flanking the terrorists, Col Vasanth engaged them from close quarter, killing one of them. However, he himself was injured in this action. Unmindful of this, he exhorted his men to block all escape routes of the terrorists and killed two more terrorists before succumbing to his wounds.

A total of eight foreign terrorists were killed in this operation by his group. Earlier in the same general area, he had led an operation from June 27 to 30 last, in which his battalion had eliminated four terrorists.

Col Venugopal was born in Bangalore and did his schooling from Udupi.

Captain Harshan R killed two hardcore terrorists at very close range in Lolab (North Kashmir) on March 20 last. For over two months preceding the operation, this gallant officer had been relentlessly tracking foreign terrorists.

The officer first killed one terrorist but was injured due to a gunshot wound on his thigh in this action. Unmindful of this injury he went on to kill another terrorist. In the process he received another gunshot, this time on his neck. He later succumbed to his wounds.

Capt. Harshan R belonged to Manacaud, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala.

Naib Subedar Chunni Lal, who belonged to Bhaderwah (J&K), killed three terrorists on June 24 last before laying down his life in countering an infiltration bid by terrorists in Kupwara sector of J&K.

This courageous Junior Commissioned Officer was decorated twice for bravery on earlier occasions.

As a young soldier he had taken part in the capture of Bana Top in Siachen Glacier in 1987 for which he was awarded a Sena Medal. He was also awarded Vir Chakra for beating back an attempted intrusion in Poonch sector in 1999.

The Ashok Chakra is awarded for valour, courageous action or self-sacrifice away from the battlefield. It is the peace-time equivalent of the Param Vir Chakra and is awarded for the ''most conspicuous bravery or some daring or pre-eminent valour or self-sacrifice'' other than in the face of the enemy.

Also awarded are a total of six Kirti Chakras, four of them posthumously. Those awarded the Kirti Charka posthumously are Naik Radhakrishnan C from 10 MADRAS Regiment, Shri Dayanand Pandey (Faizabad), Shri Mohd Shan Ahmed (Jhansi) and Shri Tarun Kumar Dutta (Guwahati).

The other Kirti Chakra winners are Capt Abhinav Handa of 9 Maratha Light Infantry and Lt. Pankaj Kumar of 7/11 Gorkha Rifles.

Captain Abhinav Handa led a column of - Ghatak platoon on July 30 last along the Line of Control in the Uri Sector of J&K. The next day his commanding officer Col Vasanth Venugopal was killed while encountering the terrorists.

At this stage, he took charge of the operations and his group killed four more terrorists including one by himself.

Lieutenant Pankaj Kumar eliminated eight hardcore terrorists on April 10 last in a seek and destroy mission which lasted for five days in the jungles of Arunachal Pradesh. Two of these terrorists were killed after a chase for over 1.5 kms in a forested area. The officer was born in Meerut.

Naik Radhakrishan C from the Madras Regiment was the commander of a search team in Kupwara district (J&K) on October 18 last year. In a close firefight, he killed three terrorists unmindful of the injury he sustained in the operation.

He refused to be evacuated for medical help throughout the firefight and later succumbed to injuries.

He belonged to Kattur village of Dharmapuri district in Tamil Nadu.

Two other persons of his battalion, 10 MADRAS, have also been decorated by the President on the eve of Independence Day. One of them has been awarded a Shaurya Chakra and the other a Sena Medal -- both for gallantry.

Dayanand Pandey laid down his life at Baskhari Sub Post Office, Faizabad on August 1, 2005 while resisting three robbers who intended to loot Government money.

He belonged to village Jahangirganj in Ambedkar Nagar District (UP).

Mohd Shan Ahmed was posted as Cash Overseer at Post Office Jhansi. On December 26, 2005, he resisted looting of cash and in the attempt succumbed to injuries inflicted by the armed miscreants.

He belonged to Jhansi (UP).

Shri Tarun Kumar Dutta from Guwahati was a brave officer who was actively involved in the checking of smuggling of drugs in Shillong region. He was made a target by the drug mafia and killed on September 12, 2006.

The Kirti Chakra is awarded for valour, courageous action or self-sacrifice away from the battlefield. It is the peacetime equivalent of the Maha Vir Chakra and is second in order of precedence of peacetime gallantry awards.

Among the 20 personnel awarded Shaurya Chakra, 19 of them belong to the Army and one is from the Air Force. Of these eight are officers and one is a Junior Commissioned Officer.

In this category nine personnel have been awarded Shaurya Chakra posthumously. Nine of the recipients of the Shaurya Chakra have been awarded while serving in the Rashtriya Rifles.

The junior-most officer to be awarded the Shaurya Chakra is Lt KDS Rathore of 42 Field Regiment.

The only Junior Commissioned Officer in this category is Subedar Manohar P of 10 MADRAS Regiment.

Those awarded posthumously are Naik Jyoti Prakash (Grenadiers / Rashtriya Rifles), Lance Naik Bhawan Singh (2 Para Regiment), Lance Naik Bachhav Shashikant Ganpat (9 Maratha Light Infantry), Lance Naik Ravinder Singh Malik (159 Infantry Battalion (TA) / Dogra Regiment), Sepoy Rahul Singh (4 Bihar Regiment), Sapper Babu Ram Veeranna Pattar (5 Engineer Regiment), Sapper Shinde Amachandra Shivaji (Engineers / Rashtriya Rifles), Sowar Sultan Singh (AC / Rashtriya Rifles) and Sergeant Jai Prakash Shukla (IAF).

The Shaurya Chakra is the third-level award for gallantry away from the battlefield and the equivalent of the Vir Chakra during peacetime.

UNI