
Major Vivek Gupta was born on 2 January 1970 to Col BRS Gupta, an Army Ordnance Corps officer in Deharadun, Uttarakhand. After college, he went to National Defense Academy and Indian Military Academy and was commissioned into the Rajputana Rifles Regiment, an infantry Regiment well known for its gallant soldiers, on 13th June 1992.
Service Number | IC 51152K |
Place of Birth | Dehradun |
Rank | Major |
Unit | 2 Raj Rifles |
Regiment | Rajputana Rifles |
Award | Maha Vir Chakra |
Date of Martyrdom | 13th June 1999 |
Major Vivek and his men of the 2nd Battalion, Rajputana Rifles were tasked with the recapture of point 4590 on the Tololing in the Drass sector. He was part of a light machine gun commando team. Major Vivek was martyred on June 13 after capturing two difficult posts the same day on the wind-swept, icy slopes of the Drass sector. He died on the battlefront when bullets from the Pakistanis tore open his torso, but not before he and his company men had slain seven members in the enemy camp. His body could not be recovered immediately and it lay on the Tololing Top before the Indian Army sent a mission, braving enemy fire, to rescue the bodies on June 15.
Major Vivek was given the nation’s second-highest gallantry award, “Maha Vir Chakra” posthumously for his supreme sacrifice.