Major Sanjeet Choudhary

Major Sanjeet Choudhary hailed from Rajapur village of Begusarai district in Bihar and was born on 06 June 1965. Son of Shri Janaki Jiwan Choudhary and Smt Sunitha Choudhary, Maj Sanjeet was the youngest among five, he had two elder brothers and two elder sisters. He did his schooling at the boarding school Taliyan in Bihar he was inclined to join the armed forces since his childhood. Eventually, he got selected to join the NDA after his schooling and later moved to IMA Dehradun for further training. He joined the army on 5 Jun 1986 at the age of 21 years and was commissioned into the 13 Garhwal Rifles battalion of the Garhwal Rifles Regiment, an infantry regiment known for its intrepid soldiers and numerous battle honours.

After serving for a few years, he got married to Ms. Geetanjali, daughter of an army officer Colonel Shyam Lal Dogra on 04 Dec 1992. Thereafter, he got posted to Suratgarh in the Sri Ganganagar district of Rajasthan. Subsequently, he got selected to be a part of the Indian contingent in the United Nations Peacekeeping Mission in Congo.  After completing his stint with the UN Mission, he was posted to Dalhousie. In February 1996, Maj Sanjeet and Smt Geetanjali were blessed with a daughter Tanisha. Towards the end of 1996, Maj Sanjeet got posted to the J&K area and as it was a field area, his wife and daughter moved to Tumsar, near Nagpur, where her parents were residing.

J&K Operation (Op Rakshak) : 31 Oct 1997

During 1997 Maj Sanjeet Choudhary’s unit was deployed in the trouble-torn Kashmir valley as part of "Op Rakshak". As the area of responsibility (AOR) of the unit was affected by militant activities, the unit troops had to maintain a high level of readiness at all times and often undertook operations against the militants. As the area of his unit’s operation was prone to infiltration by militants, the unit deployed armed patrols with regular frequency. The landmines along the patrol routes posed a serious danger to the troops and the Bomb Disposal Squad of the unit was often called upon to sanitize the routes.  Based on the information from the intelligence sources,  Maj Sanjeet Choudhary was tasked with a  counter-insurgency operation on 31 Oct 1997.

Maj Sanjeet Choudhary along with his team set off for the operation on 31 Oct as per the plan. As Maj Sanjeet Choudhary and his comrades were traversing through the challenging terrain as per the planned patrol route, there was a massive IED blast. The blast had a devastating effect, injuring Maj Sanjeet Choudhary, Lt Jitendra Kumar many of their comrades. The injured soldiers were immediately shifted to Base Hospital at Srinagar for medical treatment.  However Maj Sanjeet Choudhary and Lt Jitendra Kumar later succumbed to their injuries and were martyred. Maj Sanjeet Choudhary’s wife Smt Geetanjali Choudhary took the tragedy in her stride and decided to join the army to carry forward the legacy of her husband. In June 1998, she cleared the SSB in Bangalore and and was commissioned into the ordnance corps as an officer on 06 Mar 1999. Maj Sanjeet Choudhary was a valiant soldier and fine officer who led from the front and laid down his life at the age of 32 years in the service of the nation.

Maj Sanjeet Choudhary is survived by his wife Lt Col Geetanjali Choudhary and daughter Tanisha Choudhary.