Subedar Vijayrao Sarjerao Shinde

Subedar  Vijayrao Sarjerao Shinde hailed from Visapur Village of Khatav tehsil in the Satara district of Maharashtra. Son of an Army veteran, he had two brothers as his siblings and his elder brother Sanjay too was serving in the army. Sub Shinde was inclined to join the Indian Army like his father right from his younger days.  After completing his school education, he followed his childhood dream of joining the army with determination and saw it to fruition in the year 1998.

He got recruited into the 22 MLI battalion of the Maratha Light Infantry Regiment, an infantry regiment well known for its gallant soldiers and a number of battle honours. After completing his training, he served in various operational areas and developed into a fine soldier with admirable leadership skills. By 2022, he had been promoted to the rank of Subedar and had gathered substantial field experience.

 Ladakh Vehicle Accident: 27 May 2022

During May 2022, Sub Vijayrao Shinde's unit was deployed in Turtuk sector in the Ladakh area of Kashmir. The AOR(Area of Responsibility) of the unit spanned over remote rugged mountainous terrain with extreme weather conditions, especially in the winter season. The unit troops were deployed on various forward posts and often undertook patrol to monitor the area in between the manned posts. The soldiers joining the unit on posting or returning from leave had to acclimatize in phases at transit centers before joining owing to extreme weather conditions. on 27 May 2022, Sub Vijayrao Shinde and 25 other soldiers were required to go from the transit camp in Partapur near Siachen to a forward location in Sub Sector Hanif.

As the vehicle carrying Sub Vijayrao Shinde and 25 other soldiers was on its way, it skidded off the road and fell in Shyok River. The vehicle plummeted to a depth of 50-60 feet. injuring all the soldiers. The Army launched the rescue operation and the injured soldiers were transferred to a field hospital at Partapur, where Army surgical teams were dispatched from Leh. However Sub Vijayrao Shinde and six other soldiers succumbed to their injuries and were martyred. The other 19 soldiers were air lifted and moved through Green Corridor in Chandigarh for treatment at Command Hospital. Besides Sub Vijayrao Shinde the other martyred soldiers included Naib Subedar Gurudayal Sahu from Betul in Madhya Pradesh, Naik Sandeep Pal from Hazaribagh in Jharkhand, Naik Ramanuj Kumar from Patna in Bihar, Naik Jadhav Prashant Shivaji from Kolhapur in Maharashtra, Lance Naik Bappaditya Khutia from Pashchim Mednipur in West Bengal and L/Hav MD Saijal T from Malappuram in Kerala. Sub Vijayrao Shinde was a gallant soldier and committed Junior Commissioned Officer who made the supreme sacrifice in the line of his duty.

Sub Vijayrao Sarjerao Shinde is survived by his mother, wife Smt Priyanka, twin daughters and two brothers.