Sanjeet Choudhary, SM

Biography

Major Sanjeet Choudhary hailed from Rajapur village in the Begusarai district of Bihar, where he was born on 6 June 1965. Drawn to the uniform from an early age, he joined the Indian Army and was commissioned into the 13th Battalion of The Garhwal Rifles on 5 June 1986 at the age of twenty-one. Over the following years he served his battalion with distinction, including a posting at Suratgarh and a tenure on United Nations peacekeeping duties in the Congo, earning a reputation as a thorough professional and a fine leader of men. By 1997 Major Choudhary was deployed in Jammu & Kashmir as part of Operation Rakshak, the Army's sustained counter-insurgency campaign in the state. Besides holding forward positions, his unit was regularly tasked with patrolling and search operations in militancy-affected areas. On 31 October 1997, while leading a counter-insurgency patrol, his party was struck by a massive improvised explosive device blast that critically wounded him along with a fellow officer, Second Lieutenant Jitendra Kumar Sharma. Despite the gravest of injuries, Major Choudhary was evacuated to the Base Hospital in Srinagar, where he succumbed soon after, laying down his life in the highest traditions of the Indian Army. For his courage and devotion to duty he was awarded the Sena Medal (Posthumous).