MCPO II AK Singh

Master Chief Petty Officer II AK Singh hailed from Siswa village in Chapra district of Bihar. As he was inclined to serve in the Armed Forces, he joined the Navy after completing his school education. After completing his initial training he served aboard various warships and developed into a professionally competent sailor. After serving for a few years, he got married to Ms. Neelu Singh and the couple had a son Dushyanth and two daughters Deepika and Monali. By 2022, he had put in substantial years of service and had been promoted to the rank of MCPO II which is equivalent to Subedar rank in the Army. 

INS Ranvir Blast: 18 Jan 2022

During Jan 2022, MCPO II A.K. Singh was serving aboard INS Ranvir, one of the five Rajput-class destroyers with the Indian Navy based at Visakhapatnam. Manned by a crew of 30 officers and 310 sailors, INS Ranvir was commissioned into the Indian Navy in April 1986. The destroyer, built-in erstwhile Soviet Union, has a displacement of 5,000 tonnes, length of 146 meters, a beam of 15.8 meters, and a top speed of 30 knots. INS Ranvir is armed with a variety of weapons including surface-to-surface missiles, surface-to-air missiles, anti-aircraft guns, and torpedoes. In Nov 2021, MCPO II A.K. Singh moved to Mumbai, along with INS Ranvir on a cross-coast operational deployment from the Eastern Naval Command.  

However on 18 Jan 2022, while deployed at the Naval Dockyard, a blast took place in the ship’s air conditioning compartment, which was possibly linked to a Freon gas leak. At that time MCPO II A.K. Singh along with his comrades was in the adjacent compartment and got engulfed in the massive fire following the blast. A massive rescue operation was launched immediately to control the fire and move the trapped and injured sailors to safety. MCPO II A.K. Singh and thirteen other sailors got severely injured and were sifted to the medical facility for treatment.  However, MCPO II A.K. Singh along with MCPO I Krishan Kumar and MCPO II Surinder Kumar succumbed to their injuries and were martyred. MCPO II A.K. Singh was a committed and valiant sailor, who laid down his life in the line of his duty in service of the nation.  

MCPO II AK Singh is survived by his wife Smt Neelu Singh, son Dushyant and daughters Deepika & Monali.