Nagpur has seen closure of a painful chapter for the family of Flight Lieutenant Purvesh Duragkar, after the Maharashtra government sanctioned and handed over Rs 1 crore as ex-gratia support to his parents following his death in the Su-30MKI crash in Assam.
Cheque handed over to the family
District Sainik Welfare Officer Major Anand Patharkar (Retd) gave the assistance to Ravindra Duragkar and Sandhya Duragkar in Nagpur on Thursday. The amount was split equally, with each parent receiving Rs 50 lakh. Major Patharkar said the state had approved Rs 1 crore as ex-gratia for the parents, and the cheque was issued after the required approval was received.
Flight Lieutenant Duragkar was killed along with Squadron Leader Anuj Vashishth when a Su-30MKI fighter aircraft crashed in Assam’s Karbi Anglong district on March 5, 2026. The officer, who belonged to Nagpur, was serving as a navigator on a frontline fighter squadron under Eastern Air Command. The aircraft had taken off from Air Force Station Jorhat for a training sortie and lost radar contact at about 7:42 pm. It later went down in a remote, hilly and forested area near Inglong Ekopi / Rongkhelan, around 60 km from the airbase. The wreckage was found the next day, and the Indian Air Force confirmed that both pilots had died. Neither pilot was able to eject.
About Flight Lieutenant Purvesh Duragkar
Born in 1998, Duragkar was about 28 years old when he died. He studied Class X at South Public School, Nagpur, in 2015 and later completed a BSc in Computer Science from Dr Ambedkar College. He trained at the Defence Services Academy in Bhandara while preparing for defence examinations, took part in the National Cadet Corps, representing Maharashtra in six national camps, and also competed in aero-modelling events. He entered the Indian Air Force through the AFCAT route, was commissioned as a Flying Officer on December 7, 2022, and was later promoted to Flight Lieutenant. He was originally posted at Tezpur but was operating from Jorhat because of runway work at Tezpur.
The report also notes that he had participated in Operation Sindoor in May 2025, described as the military operation launched in response to the Pahalgam terror attack. He is survived by his parents and his sister Sayali, who lives in the United States. He had visited his family in Nagpur about 10 days before the crash.
State policy and official response
Maharashtra’s policy provides Rs 1 crore as ex-gratia to the next of kin of defence personnel from the state who are killed in action or operations, effective from 2019 after earlier lower amounts. In this case, the assistance was processed and disbursed about eight months after the incident.
The Indian Air Force had earlier conveyed condolences, saying that all personnel stand firmly with the bereaved families. The crash was the latest involving a Su-30MKI in the Northeast in recent years.
