Rajneesh Parmar

Biography

Lieutenant Colonel Rajneesh Parmar hailed from Nanao village in the Sulah area of Kangra district in Himachal Pradesh. Born on 27th September 1976, he came from a military family; his father, JWO Mukhtyar Singh (retired), served in the Indian Air Force, and his younger brother Nikhil Parmar also serves as a Lieutenant Colonel in the Indian Army. Inspired by his father from childhood, Rajneesh set his sights on the armed forces, cleared the Combined Defence Services Examination, and joined the Indian Military Academy in 2000. He was commissioned into the Army Aviation Corps and trained as a helicopter pilot. Over the next nineteen years he developed into a professionally competent aviator with expertise across a range of air operations. By 2019 he was serving with 28 R&O Flight of 667 Army Aviation Squadron, which operated single-engine Cheetah helicopters and was based at Misamari in Assam. As part of a long-standing arrangement between India and Bhutan, under which Bhutanese pilots had trained with the Indian Army since 2014-15, Lt Col Rajneesh served as an instructor to Bhutanese pilots. On 27th September 2019 he was tasked for an air mission alongside Captain Kalzang Wangdi of the Royal Bhutan Army. After completing the task with the Indian Military Training Team (IMTRAT), the two pilots took off again to return to Bhutan. As the Cheetah helicopter flew en route from Khirmu in Arunachal Pradesh to Yongfulla in Bhutan, it developed a serious snag that the crew could not rectify in time. Despite his considerable experience, Lt Col Rajneesh did not have enough time to regain control, and the helicopter crashed, claiming the lives of both aircrew. He laid down his life in the line of duty on a day that, poignantly, happened to be his birthday.