On 30th January, 1990 Corporal Santosh Kumar Bajpai belonging to a Signal Unit, Air Force at Tejpur, was detailed on temporary duty to another AF station by road. After completion of the task at that place the airman boarded a civil bus at 1330 hours for returning to Rangapara. At about the same time on that day a gang of armed militants looted approximately Rs.1 crore from SBI Rangapara. These armed militants were stranded with their booty at Borjully PWD Road about 3 km from Rangapara as their gateway vehicle had broken down. At this point of time the civil bus carrying Cpl Bajpai SK reached that spot. The standard armed extremists numbering approximately seven stopped the bus at gunpoint and ordered the bus driver to reverse and asked the passengers to get down. Realising that they wanted to use the bus for their escape, Corporal Bajpai SK courageously came forward and refused to get down from the bus while the other passengers disembarked. Cpl Bajpai, on the other hand, ordered the bus driver to drive on the bus to Rangapara. While Cpl Bajpai defied the armed extremists, other passengers watched in mute silence and continued to obey the command of the extremists. Angered at the defiance of Cpl Bajpai, one of the extremists fired at him from point blank range and killed him. Another extremists opened fire indiscriminately inside the bus. By this time one motor cycle and a moped happened to be passing through the site of the incident. In their panic the extremists stopped and took over these two vehicles at gun point and five of the extremists escaped on these two vehicles and other two ran away through the tea garden. The police recovered Rs. 73 lacs from the Ambassador Car broken down at the site of the incident. The civil bus was driven to the Rangapara Railway Hospital with the injured passengers and the dead body of the Cpl Bajpai SK. Had Corporal Bajpai SK not put valiant resistance, the extremists would have easily succeeded in getting away with the booty.

Corporal Santosh Kumar Bajpai, thus, displayed conspicuous bravery and made the supreme sacrifice of his life in public interest.