Ashutosh Sharma, SM

Biography

Col Ashutosh Sharma was born on 3 July 1975 in Parwana village, Bulandshahr district, Uttar Pradesh. He completed his schooling at DAV Inter College in Bulandshahr and was commissioned into 19 Guards of the Brigade of Guards on 1 September 2001 after being selected through the Combined Defence Services Examination. Over the next two decades he served in multiple operational areas and earned a reputation as a tough, gritty officer who led from the front. He was first awarded the Sena Medal on Republic Day 2018 for an act of bravery during counter-insurgency operations. In 2019, while commanding 21 Rashtriya Rifles, he shot a terrorist at point-blank range as the militant rushed his men with a hidden grenade, an action for which he received a Bar to the Sena Medal on Independence Day 2019. On 2 May 2020, during the Handwara Operation in the Wadarbala-Rajwara forests of north Kashmir, Col Sharma received intelligence that two to four terrorists were holding civilians hostage in Chanjimulla hamlet. He immediately led his team to the site and engaged the militants in a fierce hours-long gun battle. The team eliminated two terrorists and rescued the trapped civilians, but Col Sharma sustained grievous injuries during the encounter and made the supreme sacrifice along with Maj Anuj Sood, Naik Rajesh Kumar and Lance Naik Dinesh Singh. For his exceptional leadership and conspicuous gallantry, Col Ashutosh Sharma was posthumously awarded the Sena Medal (Gallantry) on 26 January 2021 — his third Sena Medal.