K Manoj Kumar, SM

Biography

Major K Manoj Kumar hailed from Haripad in the Alappuzha district of Kerala. He joined the Indian Army and was commissioned into the Army Ordnance Corps, the arm responsible for providing logistics and ammunition support to the Army in both war and peace. On 31 May 2016, a major fire broke out at the Central Ammunition Depot in Pulgaon, Maharashtra. Major Manoj Kumar, along with fellow officer Lieutenant Colonel Ranjit Singh Panwar and the firefighting teams, made valiant efforts to contain the blaze and succeeded in restricting the damage to a single ammunition shed. The subsequent explosions during the operation claimed his life along with that of Lieutenant Colonel Panwar and fifteen Defence Security Corps soldiers. For his exceptional courage and supreme sacrifice, Major K Manoj Kumar was posthumously awarded the Sena Medal.