Prasad Babu of the Greyhounds covered his unit's helicopter evacuation under Maoist fire on the Andhra Pradesh-Chhattisgarh border in April 2013.
The last helicopter sortie
In April 2013, Greyhounds units of the Andhra Pradesh Police were operating against Maoists on the border with Chhattisgarh. Prasad Babu led one of the assault units. The unit came under heavy fire and, in the engagement that followed, killed nine senior Maoist cadres.
A helicopter then began lifting the commandos out in a series of sorties. Maoists and armed militia fired on the aircraft during the last one, and it left with some men still on the ground. Prasad Babu was among those who stayed.
As more Maoists arrived and surrounded them, he told the remaining commandos to withdraw and held off the attackers while they reached a safe zone. He was killed. Published accounts differ on whether he died on 16 or 17 April, and on the details of his death.
A name and a rank that vary by record
He came from Marturu village in Visakhapatnam district and joined the Andhra Pradesh Police in 2004. The President's Secretariat gives his name as K.L.V.S.S.H.N.V. Prasad Babu. Reports called him a sub-inspector when the award was announced on 15 August 2013; the Secretariat's 2014 caption says Reserve Inspector.
His father received the Ashoka Chakra from President Pranab Mukherjee at the 65th Republic Day parade on 26 January 2014.
What the citation recorded
The official citation text could not be read for this article. This is a summary, not the citation. Reports of it record that Prasad Babu led a Greyhounds assault unit near the Andhra Pradesh-Chhattisgarh border, where the unit came under heavy fire and killed nine senior Maoist cadres. During a helicopter evacuation in several sorties, he was among those left when Maoists and militia fired on the last lift. He held them back so that his colleagues could get away, and was killed.