Ranjit Singh Panwar, SM

Biography

Lieutenant Colonel Ranjit Singh Panwar was born in Haridwar, Uttarakhand. He studied at Delhi Public School, Ranipur, and joined the National Defence Academy, Pune, followed by training at the Indian Military Academy, Dehradun. He was commissioned into the Army Ordnance Corps, the arm responsible for providing logistics and ammunition support to the Indian Army. On 31 May 2016, a major fire broke out at the Central Ammunition Depot in Pulgaon, Maharashtra. Displaying exceptional courage and presence of mind, Lieutenant Colonel Panwar joined the firefighting effort and worked to contain the blaze before it could spread, helping to restrict the damage to a single ammunition shed. A series of explosions during the operation claimed his life along with that of a fellow officer, Major K Manoj Kumar, and fifteen Defence Security Corps personnel. For his exceptional courage and supreme sacrifice, Lieutenant Colonel Ranjit Singh Panwar was posthumously awarded the Sena Medal.