Former BSF director general E N Rammohan passes away at 77

NEW DELHI: Former BSF director general (DG) E N Rammohan today passed away here. He was 77.

Family sources said Rammohan breathed his last early morning today at the AIIMS trauma centre.

He was admitted there about 10 days back after he met with an accident at his home and suffered a fracture in his ribs.

Rammohan was also suffering from prostrate cancer.

His last rites were performed at the Lodhi road crematorium by his family members.

A host of serving and retired BSF officers paid their last respects to their former chief even as a ceremonial force contingent gave him the traditional last salute with gun shots fired in the air.

The paramilitary, through its official Twitter handle, said "a legend hangs his boots forever. . ."

Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad Sangma paid his tributes to the police officer in a tweet saying: "Saddened by the demise of E.N. Rammohan, former Director General of Border Security Force. Rammohan, an IPS officer of the Assam-Meghalaya cadre, had served to the best of his ability be it in Meghalaya, Assam and our nation as a whole. May his soul rest in peace."

BSF chief K K Sharma said the former chief's death was a big loss for the country's largest border guarding force.

"He was a fine person, a thorough professional, man of integrity and known for his jawan-centric leadership.

He used to lead from the front and he will always be remembered for his leadership style," Sharma told PTI.

The 1965-batch Indian Police Service (IPS) officer of the Assam-Meghalaya cadre headed the Border Security Force (BSF) between December 1997-November 2000 and he earlier served in the force as its Inspector General (Operations) at the force headquarters in Delhi.

Rammohan, who sported a handlebar mustache, was regularly seen on television news channels discussing internal security issues and was considered an expert in counter-insurgency operations given his wide exposure in the north east states and various central paramilitary forces.

The Union Home Ministry had appointed him as the head of the fact-finding probe panel which went into the lapses that took place during the deadly Naxal ambush in Chhattisgarh in 2010 that killed 76 security men.

The officer, apart from serving in the Assam and Meghalaya Police, had stints in various central armed police forces like the Central Reserve Police Force, the National Security Guard  and the Indo Tibetan Border Police.

The about 2.5-lakh personnel strong BSF is tasked with guarding the country's two major frontiers with Paksitan and Bangladesh apart from rendering a variety of duties in the internal security domain, including anti-Naxal operations.