Suicide by retired air marshal, a ’71 war vet

A highly-decorated retired Indian Air Force officer, believed to be depressed and lonely in his advancing years, committed suicide at his retirement home in Chandigarh on Wednesday.

Air Vice-Marshal Manjit Singh Dhillon, 69, a retired helicopter pilot who was decorated with a Vir Chakra for executing several precarious evacuation missions during the 1971 India-Pakistan war, shot himself through the chin with his old hunting gun at home in Chandigarh’s Sector 35.

The police said the officer’s wife was also home but in another room when he loaded his 12 bore gun, sat on a stool and calmly fired the weapon. His wife, Harpreet, rushed in on hearing the gunshot, only to find her husband dead and lying in a pool of blood.

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Gold : One in Billion

Abhinav Bindra won India’s first-ever individual Olympic gold medal when he claimed the men’s 10m air rifle shooting title in Beijing Monday.

Athens champion Zhu Qinan of China won silver and Henri Hakkinen of Finland took bronze. Bindra, 25, a businessman from Chandigarh, followed his world championship title two years ago to finally win a landmark gold medal for India.

In one of the most thrilling shooting finals in Olympic history, Bindra overcame a two-point deficit against Hakkinen and one point against Zhu after the qualification rounds to annexe the title.

The Indian trumped his rivals with the best finish of 104.5 in the 10-shot final as he went into the last shot level with Hakkinen on 689.7 points. While Bindra secured his best score of 10.8 in the deciding shot, Hakkinen managed only 9.7 to concede the silver to Zhu, whose last shot was 10.5.

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