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New Delhi: President Ram Nath Kovind presented Group Captain Abhinandan Varthaman the Vir Chakra this morning for shooting down a Pakistani F-16 fighter jet during a duel over the Line of Control (LoC) on February 27, 2019.
.After the Param Vir Chakra and Maha Vir Chakra, the Vir Chakra is India’s third-highest wartime heroism medal.
A Kirti Chakra was bestowed posthumously to Sapper Prakash Jadhav for valor in a counterinsurgency operation in Kashmir three years ago, among other decorations presented by Kovind.
Abhinandan’s citation read, “Displaying exceptional air combat acumen and knowledge of the enemy’s tactics, Abhinandan scanned the low-altitude airspace with his airborne intercept (AI) radar and picked up an enemy aircraft that was flying low to ambush the Indian fighter-interceptor aircraft… Abhinandan alerted the other formation pilots towards this surprise threat.”
Earlier in the month, he was upgraded to the rank of group captain earlier this month after serving as a wing commander. A group captain in the Indian Air Force (IAF) is the equivalent of an army colonel.
Abhinandan Varthaman, then 35, made military aviation history when he shot down an F-16 fighter jet just seconds before his MiG-21 Bison was damaged by a missile, causing him to eject.
Experts praised it as the first-ever kill of an F-16 by a MiG-21 Bison – two different eras of fighter jets.
He was apprehended after bailing out of his plane, and Pakistan handed him over to India on March 1, 2019, after nearly 60 hours of detention.