Captain Ashutosh Kumar receives posthumous Shaurya Chakra: A brief profile of braveheart

Captain Ashutosh Kumar, who laid down his life in the line of duty in November 2020, on Tuesday received his posthumous Shaurya Chakra–the country’s third-highest gallantry award–from President Ram Nath Kovind. The solemn ceremony, held at the Rashtrapati Bhavan, saw President Kovind walk up to the braveheart’s parents and hand them the medal awarded to their late son for his act of valour.

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Here are a few things you need to know about Captain Ashutosh Kumar:

(1.) The late officer was from village Parmanpur in Bihar’s Madhepura. He has two sisters while his father works in a veterinary hospital and mother is a housewife.

(2.) The fallen soldier completed his schooling from Sainik School in Odisha’s Bhubaneswar. According to Vishal Vaibhav, who was his junior at the Sainik School, the Captain was a ‘brilliant student’ who could have ‘easily cracked’ the JEE or NEET.

(3.) After completing his schooling, Kumar joined the 132nd course at the Pune-based National Defence Academy (NDA). From there, he proceeded to complete his training at the Indian Military Academy (IMA), Dehradun.

(4.) The counter-terror operation during which he was killed in action took place in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kupwara, near the Line of Control (LoC), on the intervening night of November 8, 2020. Captain Ashutosh, who, at the time, was with the 18th battalion of the army’s Madras Regiment, attained martyrdom barely 20 days after his 24th birthday.

(5.) Havildar Praveen Kumar, Rifleman Ryada Maheshwar and Border Security Force (BSF) jawan Sudip Kumar laid down their lives in the same operation. Three terrorists, too, were neutralised by the security forces.