Published Jun 12, 2026 | 4:17 PM ⚊ Updated Jun 12, 2026 | 4:23 PM
Mukund Varadarajan on the day he passed out from the Officers Training Academy in Chennai. Courtesy: facebook@majormukundvaradarajan
Synopsis: Major Mukund Varadarajan Road comes two years after a 2024 movie that his Commanding Officer hailed for appreciating “the quiet strength of those who serve”.
The Velachery-Tambaram High Road will now be known after Major Mukund Varadarajan, the Ashok Chakra awardee and Army officer from the Rajput regiment who was killed during a counter-terrorism operation in 2014 in Jammu and Kashmir.
The resolution to rename the road as the Major Mukund Varadarajan Road was approved by the Tambaram Corporation Council on Thursday.
Mukund had gunned down Jaish-e-Mohammed’s Southern Kashmir commander Altaf Baba in 2013.
A year later—on April 25, 2014—Major Mukund and his 44 Rashtriya Rifles battalion team went after Altaf Baba’s successor Altaf Wani and two more terrorists who had killed Election Commission officials overseeing the Lok Sabha polls that year.
“On April 25, 2014, information was received from intelligence sources about the presence of some hardcore terrorists, including Jaish-e-Mohammed commander Altaf Wani in Qazipathri village in Shopian district. It was decided to launch an operation to flush out the terrorists under the leadership of Major Mukund Varadarajan. As decided Major Mukund swung into action along with his troops and reached the suspected area within 30 minutes. The intelligence information also suggested that the same terrorists were responsible for killing election officials 24 hours earlier,” HonourPoint, a site dedicated to India’s fallen heroes, recounted.
The website also mentioned how “without pausing and caring for his safety, Major Mukund lunged forward (after one of his soldiers had been shot dead) and sprayed bullets on Altaf Wani, killing him instantly. However, during the heavy exchange of fire, Major Mukund too received three gunshots and soon collapsed. He was immediately rushed to the Army’s 92 Base Hospital at Srinagar, but Major Mukund lost the battle for life on the way and breathed his last in the arms of the regimental medical officer.”
The nation honoured the braveheart, who was just 31 when he died, with the highest peacetime award—the Ashok Chakra.
The Kozhikode-born, Chennai-brought-up, Officer Training Academy, Chennai passout left behind his father R Varadarajan, mother Geetha, wife Indhu Rebecca Varghese, daughter Arsheya, and two sisters Swetha and Nithya.
In 2024, the Tamil film Amaran (The Immortal), starring Siva Karthikeyan and Sai Pallavi in the lead roles, which was bankrolled by Kamal Haasan’s Raaj Kamal Films International, celebrated Major Mukund’s life and deeds. It went on to gross almost Rs 350 crore at the box office.
Major Mukund’s commanding officer Amit Dabas, after seeing the film, wrote on LinkedIn that “the film doesn’t aim to romanticise or dramatise sacrifice but rather to pay a genuine tribute to Mukund and the selfless spirit he exemplified. Amaran reminds us that leadership in uniform demands not only tactical acumen but also the humility to lead by example and the courage to make decisions that affect the lives of others.”
