JOIN USRetired Major General S P Mahadevan, whose battalion of the Madras Regiment was one of the first to land in Srinagar Valley to support the then Maharaja Hari Singh in 1947, has died at the age of 93.
The decorated army officer, who was commissioned into the Indian Army in 1946 from the Officers Training Academy, then at Bengaluru, was badly wounded in the action in the Kashmir Valley and was later assigned to protect Mahatma Gandhi from rioters in Calcutta.
"His distinguished service under Lt Gen Jagjit Singh Arora as his BGS Eastern Command during the Bangladesh Operations earned him the AVSM (Ati Vishisht Seva Medal). An alumnus of staff college, NDC he became a major general in the year 1972 at the young age before turning 47 years," the PIB, Defence Wing, said in a statement here.