Career
In his youth, Benegal joined the Indian National Army and was chosen to join the Tokyo Boys to train as a fighter pilot. He went on to attend the Imperial Japanese Army Air Force Academy in 1944. Held as a prisoner of war after the fall of Japan, Benegal was released in 1946 and enlisted in the Indian Air Force in 1952 and saw action in both the 1965 and 1971 Indo-Pakistan War.