Ex-gratia to Agniveer’s family | No Army request for police verification pending with us: Ludhiana DC, Khanna SSP

In the statement titled ‘Clarification on emoluments to Agniveer Ajay Kumar’, the Army had put out a post on X through its official handle @adgpi stating, “Ex – Gratia and other benefits amounting to approximately Rs 67 lakh, as applicable according to the provisions of the Agniveer Scheme, will be paid on Final Account Settlement shortly post due Police verification”.

Khanna SSP Amneet Kondal said that they haven’t received any request for police verification yet. “Police verification can be done only when we receive a request. There is no such application pending with us. We do police verifications of soldiers who die in line of duty on priority basis.”

The Army had also stated that out of the total amount due, family of Agniveer Ajay has already been paid Rs 98.39 lakh. This had been disputed by the family who say this amount included insurance payouts which have nothing to do with the ex-gratia which the Army has to pay to them.

Ludhiana deputy commissioner Sakshi Sawhney said that no paperwork was pending with the district administration but added that the ‘Battle Casualty Certificate’ of Agniveer Ajay had not been received by the district administration.

“The Battle Casualty Certificate from the Army related to Agniveer Ajay has not been received yet by our office. Our district Defence Services Welfare officer had written to the Records Office of the Sikh Light Infantry Regiment reminding them of the same but no response has been received yet.” Sawhney said adding that no other paperwork or formality related to the Agniveer’s death was pending with her office.

As per the letter dated March 11, 2024, district defence welfare officer, Ludhiana, wrote to the Records branch of The Sikh Light Infantry that the certificate be issued at the earliest.

The letter reads: “It is submitted that as per Battle Casualty certificate issued by 17 Sikh LI, Agniveer Ajay Kumar, r/o VPO Ramgarh Sardaran, Tehsil Payal, Dist-Ludhiana, had sacrificed his life due to explosion of unidentified ordnance on Line of Control in J&K on 18 Jan 2024 and has been classified as battle casualty by the unit… It is therefore requested to send Battle Casualty Certificate issued by Army Headquarters, New Delhi, to this office at the earliest for our further necessary action please. An early action is requested please.”

Ajay’s father Charanjit Singh Kala Friday said, “We have received Rs 48 lakh as insurance claim from the Army and Rs 50 lakh as insurance claim from ICICI Bank. Another Rs 1 crore has been given by Punjab government. We have not received any ex-gratia from the Centre as being claimed by Rajnath Singh. He is lying that Centre gave us Rs 1 crore.”

The Director Sainik Welfare Department Punjab, Brig BS Dhillon said that he did not understand what kind of police verification was needed to pay the ex-gratia to the family of the Agniveer when other payments had been credited to their account.

“The Battle Casualty Certificate is required by the state government for issuing benefits to the family of a deceased soldier and it has nothing to do the centre releasing any payment. In fact, the Punjab government has not waited for the Battle Casualty Certificate from Army to release the amount of Rs 1 crore to the family of Agniveer Ajay, as we should have as per norms. CM Bhagwant Mann did not want to wait for paper formalities before giving the family their due,” said Brig Dhillon.

He added that six months have passed since the death of the Agniveer and the Army should have escalated the issue of any pending verification with his office or that of the Chief Secretary of the state so that the ex-gratia could be speedily issued.

“My office has not received any communication from the Army on the issue of pending police verification for payment of ex-gratia to Agniveer Ajay’s family,” he said.