Master Chief Petty Officer II Surinder Kumar hailed from Hamirpur district of Himachal Pradesh.  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 Neelam Kumari and the couple had two daughters, Anshika and Kajol. 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 Surinder Kumar 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 the 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 Surinder Kumar 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 Surinder Kumar 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 Surinder Kumar and thirteen other sailors got severely injured and were shifted to the medical facility for treatment.  However, MCPO II Surinder Kumar along with MCPO I Krishan Kumar and  MCPO II A.K. Singh later succumbed to their injuries and were martyred. MCPO II Surinder Kumar was a committed and valiant sailor, who laid down his life in the line of his duty in service of the nation.  

MCPO II Surinder Kumar is survived by his wife Smt Neelam Kumari and daughters, Anshika and Kajol.