Chandra Narain Singh, MVC

Biography

Captain Chandra Narain Singh, affectionately known as CN, was born on 2nd July 1939 in Dharamsala, Himachal Pradesh. Inspired by his father's military legacy, he was selected for the Indian Military Academy on his first attempt and was commissioned into the 2nd Battalion of the Garhwal Rifles on 11th June 1961. During Pakistan's Operation Gibraltar in August 1965, Captain Chandra Narain was serving as Staff Captain with the 93 Infantry Brigade Headquarters in the Poonch-Mendhar sector. On 5th August 1965, acting on intelligence regarding a large group of Pakistani infiltrators near Dabrot village, he led an immediate patrol drawn from the defence platoon of the 22 Maratha Battalion. Despite being heavily outnumbered, Captain Chandra Narain launched a fearless assault that forced the infiltrators to abandon three light machine guns and a large cache of ammunition. When a concealed enemy group opened fire and his sahayak, Rifleman Pushkar Singh Bisht, was grievously wounded, Captain Chandra Narain charged the enemy alone, shouting 'Badri Vishal Lal Ki Jai!', and engaged them at close quarters. After neutralising nearly the entire enemy group, he was struck in the head by a bullet fired by a fleeing infiltrator and made the supreme sacrifice on 5th August 1965. For his indomitable courage, exemplary leadership and supreme sacrifice, Captain Chandra Narain Singh was posthumously awarded the Maha Vir Chakra, India's second-highest wartime gallantry award.