Group Captain Abhinandan Varthaman wasawarded the Vir Chakra on Monday, November 22, by President Ram Nath Kovind atan investiture ceremony for shooting down a Pakistani F-16 fighter aircraft inFebruary 2019.
Abhinandan is credited to have been the onlyMig-21 pilot ever to have shot down an F-16.
The Indian Air Force earlier promotedAbhinandan to the rank of Group Captain.
He shot down an F-16 over Pakistan-occupiedKashmir during India's Balakot air strike but was taken captive by the PakistanArmy after his plane was shot down by enemy forces. Abhinandan was a WingCommander back then.
Amid the fight between the two fighterplanes, Abhinandan Varthaman brought down a Pakistani F-16 fighter jet inaerial combat, after which his aircraft was shot down by the Pakistani AirForce. He had landed in Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) and was taken intocustody by the Pakistani Army.
Abhinandan was part of the Srinagar-based 51squadron and had flown to thwart an aerial attack launched by the Pakistanis onFebruary 27, 2019.
India had launched an aerial strike onPakistan's terrorist facility in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa area run by the Jaish-e-Mohammed(JeM) on February 26.
Abhinandan's style of moustache has becomepopular in India and is widely called the "Abhinandan cut". The styleis similar to a combination of old gunslinger moustache and muttonchops worn by Franz Joseph I of Austria. It resembles themoustache worn by actor Suriya in the Singam film series and Rajinikanth'smoustache in Petta (2019).