An additional commissioner in the Income Tax Department, enrolled with a special territorial army unit, has been decorated with the Shaurya Chakra for exhibiting extraordinary courage and killing infiltrators along the LoC in Jammu and Kashmir.
47-year-old Captain Pradeep Shoury Arya's is one of the exceptional cases in which a bureaucrat has been decorated with the third highest peacetime military gallantry medal.
Shoury, a 2004-batch Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer, was commissioned into the 106th infantry battalion of the Territorial Army (PARA) in 2009. His unit was on attachment with the 4th battalion of PARA (Special Forces) deployed along the Line of Control (LoC) when he undertook a dare-devil operation.
Shoury's team was tasked to create effective intelligence and defence mechanism against cross-border infiltration in the Baramula district of J-K, along the LoC.
The officer's citation says: "On the night of May 28 last year, he displayed heroic initiative and inspirational combat leadership, ran ahead from his concealed position, unmindful of his own safety and came directly in contact with the terrorists and eliminated them."
Shoury, posted as an Additional Commissioner in the international taxation wing of the I-T Department in Mumbai, told PTI: "I always wanted to don the uniform and hence enrolled myself into the TA to serve the motherland."
The officer had also used his tax investigation knowledge to prepare a special report on terror funding and money laundering activities of the ultras operating in Kashmir valley, earning himself commendation from the Chief of the Army Staff (COAS).
He was also adjudged the best trainee officer at the Indian Military Academy and has won the national award for best electoral practices for conducting polls in Nagaland as part of working under an Election Commission team.
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