‘Off to rest’: Captain killed in Doda lied to mom on last call before fatal op | India News

DEHRADUN: Captain Deepak Singh, 25, who was killed in action during an encounter with terrorists in J&K’s Doda on Wednesday, had lied to his mother on what would be his last phone call to her, telling her that he was off to his unit’s base to “rest”. In reality, he was readying for a deadly mission on Tuesday night.
His father, Mahesh Singh, a retired inspector with Uttarakhand Police, told TOI on Thursday: “He would speak to us on video call from J&K and always lie to his mother about things.’Ma, sab theek hai…shanti hai, main rest kar raha hun’. Often, he would speak after removing his uniform’s shirt, clad in his vest on those calls to give the impression to his mother that he was relaxing. However, being a former policeman, I would spot his boots and trousers, signs that he was on duty.”
Commissioned in the Signals regiment in 2020 after graduating from the Indian Military Academy, Captain Deepak was currently on a two-year deputation with Rashtriya Rifles in J&K. He had promised his parents he would get married after his tenure at Rashtriya Rifles was over.
“He was the only brother of two sisters. There was a mood of celebration at home just before news of his death arrived. My eldest daughter had given birth to our grandchild and we were all very excited,” Singh said. “We were planning to get him married, but he had asked us to wait for one more year to let him complete his RR tenure. Before he could do that, he made the supreme sacrifice,” Singh paused to regain his composure. “But we won’t shed a drop of tear as we are proud of our son who always wanted to serve in the Army,” he added.
Deepak was inspired to join the Army after witnessing numerous parades by police personnel on Independence Day and Republic Day at the Police Lines ground in Dehradun, where his family lived in the police quarters.
The mortal remains of Captain Deepak were flown from Jammu to Dehradun airport on Thursday afternoon at around 1pm.
Lt Col Manish Shrivastava, PRO (Defence), Dehradun, said: “Last tributes were paid to the fallen soldier amid full military honours by dignitaries including governor Lt Gen Gurmit Singh, chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami and senior Army officers. His family members performed the last rites in presence of a large number of people.”
Dhami, offering his condolences to the grieving family, said, “The whole of Uttarakhand is standing with the family right now. Our govt will provide every possible support to them.”