Family of Agniveer Ajay has already been paid Rs 98.39L: Army issues clarification

New Delhi: The Indian Army on Wednesday rejected claims in social media posts that compensation hasn’t been paid to the next of kin of ‘Agniveer’ Ajay Kumar who lost his life in the line of duty and said his family has already been given Rs 98.39 lakh out of the due amount.

The total amount will be Rs 1.65 crore approximately, it said in the “clarification” that came after Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi shared on X a video purportedly of Ajay’s father who stated that they had not received any money.

Gandhi cited Ajay’s case to allege in his post that Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has “lied” in Parliament about the issue of compensation to families of martyred ‘Agniveers’ and demanded an apology for it.

Singh, while intervening when Gandhi was speaking on the Motion of Thanks to the President’s address in Lok Sabha, had said on Monday that an Agniveer who lays down his life in the line of duty gets a compensation of Rs 1 crore.

The minister’s rebuttal had come after Gandhi criticised the ‘Agnipath’ scheme, saying the government does not even give ‘Agniveers’ the status of a “shaheed” (martyr) and that no compensation is extended to their families if they are killed in action.

In a post on ‘X’, the additional directorate general of public information of the Army said on Wednesday that the Indian Army “salutes the supreme sacrifice made by ‘Agniveer’ Ajay Kumar” and emphasised that the emoluments due to a fallen hero are paid expeditiously to the next of kin of departed soldiers, including ‘Agniveers’.