DHARWAD: Lt Gen (Retired) SC Sardeshpande passed away in Bengaluru on Wednesday. He was 88. SC Sardeshpande, who hailed from Munavalli in Savadatti taluk of Belagavi district, studied at KE Board’s High School and Karnatak College in Dharwad.
He joined the Indian Army as a second lieutenant in 1955 and on completion of one-year training, he was appointed as the officer in Kumaon Regiment covering the eastern part of Uttarakhand.
He has served for two terms each in Jammu and Kashmir, Rajasthan, Punjab and UP-Tibet border. He spent five years in the north-east fighting Naga insurgency. He led his battalion in the 1971 Indo-Pak war at Bangladesh and went up to Dhaka. He was honoured with the Vishist Seva Medal after the war.
For his fight against the Naga insurgency, he was awarded the Ati Vishist Seva Medal (AVSM). Sardehspande was promoted as Lt General and was sent to Sri Lanka as the chief of Indian Peacekeeping Force (IPKF) for two-and-a-half years when Rajiv Gandhi was the prime minister.
After premature retirement in 1990, he was engaged in environment-related activities and writing books. He founded the Sasri Kumaon Foundation to create awareness among the people about the defence services. He is survived bytwo sons and a daughter. As per his desire, his body was donated to a hospital.
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