Naib Subedar Gurnam Singh, an Army engineer, was killed on 23 September 1973 trying to make safe a mine-clearing charge at Pune.
The Charge at the College of Military Engineering
On 23 September 1973, a demonstration was under way at the College of Military Engineering, Pune, for staff and student officers of the Defence Services Staff College, Wellington. Naib Subedar Gurnam Singh was assigned to fire a Charge Line Mine Clearing explosive charge, with seven sappers assisting under his supervision.
The tail initiator of the charge fired prematurely. He ordered his men to a safe distance and stayed with it.
He then tried to uncouple the initiator by hand and make the charge safe. It exploded before he could finish, and he was killed.
Bhullar Village to Pune
The official record gives his domicile as Amritsar district, Punjab, his service number as JC-47692 and his unit as 108 Engineer Regiment. The Honourpoint memorial profile says he was born on 18 August 1935 in Bhullar village, served with the Bombay Sappers, and was posted as an instructor at the college on 5 January 1971.
Honourpoint is the only account found of the events at Pune. It does not say which unit he was serving with on the day, beyond his instructor posting.
The Ministry of Defence records his Ashoka Chakra as posthumous, at Republic Day 1974.
What the citation recorded
Summary, not the official text: as reported by the Honourpoint memorial site, the citation recorded that an initiator on a mine-clearing charge fired early during a demonstration, that Naib Subedar Gurnam Singh sent his party to safety, and that he tried by hand to uncouple the initiator before the charge exploded and killed him.