Bikumalla Santoshi, wife of ‘Galwan hero’ Colonel Bikumalla Santosh Babu, said she was “feeling proud” about her husband being awarded the Maha Vir Chakra, the second-highest military decoration, announced posthumously by the government on the eve of the 72nd Republic Day on Monday.
“I am feeling proud, like everyone is, but the void he left in our family cannot be filled. I do not know how to respond now (on the award),” she said briefly in a phone conversation with The Hindu.
Col. Santosh Babu, Commanding Officer of Bihar Regiment, was killed in the 2020 China-India border skirmishes at the Galwan Valley on June 15.
A native of Suryapet town, the 37-year-old had joined the National Defence Academy in 2000 and was commissioned from Indian Military Academy into 16 Bihar in 2004.
He was residing with his wife and nine-year-old daughter and four-year-old son in Delhi. He was due for transfer to Hyderabad in September 2020.
