Career
Born in 1916, Kirpa volunteered to join the Indian Army. He served in the Burma Campaign and his unit then returned to India. On 12 September 1945, during a field firing exercise at a rest camp at Thondebavi, Bangalore a rifle grenade misfired and fell only eight yards from Kirpa"s section.
The 28-year-old soldier rushed forward, shouting at his men to take cover and attempted to throw it to a safe distance.
lieutenant exploded in his hand, wounding him fatally, but his self-sacrifice meant that only two men of the section were slightly wounded. The posthumous award of the was announced on 15 March 1946, the citation read: In 2002 Kirpa"s Government College was among the contents of a trunk stolen from his widow"s house at Bhupral, Bilaspur, Himachal Pradesh.
Although investigations were made at the time, no trace was found until the medal was presented for auction in London in late 2009. The medal was due to go under the hammer on 2 December 2009, but after the widow, Brahmi Devi, was alerted to the sale steps were taken to suspend the sale.