Lt Ram Prakash Roperia of 26 Madras scaled a fortified building by ladder at Amritsar on 5/6 June 1984 and died of wounds after clearing it.
The Fourth Ladder Attempt
On the night of 5/6 June 1984, C Company of 26 Madras was ordered to take the first floor of a fortified building in the Golden Temple complex at Amritsar. Lieutenant Ram Prakash Roperia was officiating as company commander. Automatic fire covered the staircases, so he planned to go up the outside on ladders.
Machine gun fire stopped the first three attempts. He called for volunteers and led the fourth himself with Naib Subedar K.G. Koshy, and this one reached the floor.
He then led the company in clearing the upper storey.
Down the Staircase to D Company
Roperia next tried to link up with D Company on the ground floor. Fire met him at the stairs. He threw grenades and went on, and was seriously wounded in the shoulder and neck.
He reached the ground floor, made contact with D Company and collapsed. He died after evacuation to hospital.
Honourpoint, the source of this account, says he was born on 10 June 1959 in Pali village, Hissar district, Haryana, and was commissioned on 19 December 1981. The official record lists his father as Bhal Singh and his service number as IC-39994. His Ashoka Chakra dates to Republic Day 1985.
What the citation recorded
Summary, not the official text: the official awards website records only a posthumous Ashoka Chakra for an act of gallantry in Punjab. A citation reproduced by the Honourpoint memorial site says his example in a fourth ladder assault carried his company to its objective, and that though fatally wounded he fired on and killed a militant at a staircase.