Lt Gen Mohanty takes over Southern Command

With a masters degree in philosophy and a management degree, the army described him as an expert on China-, South Asia- and northeast India-related security issues

Lieutenant General C P Mohanty assumed command of the Southern Army at the headquarters, Southern Command, on Thursday in Pune.

An alumnus of the Rashtriya Indian Military College (RIMC), Dehradun, and National Defence Academy, the general officer is a June 1982 batch infantry officer from the Rajput regiment and is currently the colonel of the regiment.

Mohanty previously commanded a battalion in Jammu and Kashmir and the northeast, a mountain brigade along the Indo-China border and a mountain division in counter-insurgency operations in the northeast. Later, he commanded a strategically important corps in the Eastern Theatre post-Doklam incident and also the Uttar Bharat area at Bareilly. Mohanty commanded a multinational brigade in the Republic of Congo, besides being a military advisor to the government of Seychelles.