World War II veteran Naib Subedar (retired) Khazan Singh Kohli, who last year became the oldest living person to win a pension battle, passed away on Sunday. He was 99 years old.
PUNE: World War II veteran Naib Subedar (retired) Khazan Singh Kohli, who last year became the oldest living person to win a pension battle, passed away on Sunday. He was 99 years old.
Pune resident Kohli, who retired from the defence services in 1949, was drawing the pension of a sepoy, although he retired as a naib subedar. He was amongst the oldest surviving soldiers to have served in the British as well as the Indian Army.
Enrolled in the army on November 20, 1940, Kohli was discharged from service on July 29, 1949. He also served a period of seven years and 233 days with the British Army from 1933, and fought in World War II. He was born on September 3, 1899 at Rawalpindi.
Kohli, who worked as an RTO agent in Pune after retiring from the army, had last year told this correspondent how he used to walk to the RTO and back almost every day.
Family members said that Kohli was conferred a medal by the British Royal Army in 1935. Another medal was conferred to him by the Indian government for his role in the independence struggle. During partition, Kohli had fought off Pakistani soldiers to facilitate safe passage of people of Dulla, a village near Rawalpindi.
Kohli’s contention was that he was drawing a pension less than that of a sepoy, though he retired as a naib subedar, which is in the junior commissioned officer (JCO) rank.
After the anomaly was rectified, he started draw a pension of around Rs 5,000 per month, double than what he was being paid earlier.
What’s interesting is that when the family was fighting the case, and had approached Army Supply Corps records office at Bangalore, they had asked the Kohli family to submit documentary evidence, including photographs signed by Kohli, and a doctor’s certificate, to prove that he was still alive.
Retired Lt Col Shirish Karajgi, the former Pune zilla sainik welfare officer, who had taken up the matter with the Controller of Defence Accounts (Pension), after Kohli’s granddaughter Gurvinder approached him, had said the case was an unprecedented case.
“He was probably the oldest surviving war veteran to have won a pension case,” another senior army official who had helped Kohli in his legal battle, said.
Family members said the war veteran had lived a disciplined life all throughout, and stayed off medication till the very last stage, although just one of his four heart valves was working.
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