The 32-year-old Nayak promised his family members and his new bride, Basanti, (24), that he would return soon and boarded the train to Bhubaneswar from Berhampur on March 2. He was headed for the Kargil sector with 120 soldiers. Patra kept his promise; he fought bravely and on Thursday returned home as the sixth martyr of Orissa from Kargil.

Patra died on the evening of July 5 at the Tiger Hill in Drass while moving towards a Pakistani bunker after destroying two major bunkers as part of a unit of 4 soldiers. Suddenly, a Pakistani unit appeared from nowhere and attacked the unit, killing Patra and his three other associates.

According to Havildar P Krishna Reddy, who accompanied Patra in the battlefield and escorted his body to Bhubaneswar, after sustaining bullet injuries on his chestand head, Patra had moved for nearly one hundred metres `forward' with his guns but died of his injuries.

Elder brother S Trinath Patra said on July 2 Srinivas had written a letter to his parents, S Simanchal Patra and S Gunama Patra, mentioning that he had been promoted to Naik from the rank of Lance Naik and had been ordered to report at the Armed Force at Bihar. `I will join at Bihar on July 30 and thereafter go home on a 15 days' leave,'' Patra had written in the letter.

He was waiting for the train at the Srinagar Railway station when two jawans of the Army rushed to the station and asked him to report at the Mahar Regiment.

Srinivas was the youngest member of the Patra family and had joined the Army in 1988 while doing his graduation.

The body was received with full military honours at the Biju Patnaik Airport here on Thursday. The jawans of 120 Infantry Battalion and its commanding officer Col JP Janu saluted the martyr at the airport and covered the coffin with the tricolour.

RevenueMinister Jagannath Patnaik handed over a Rs 1 lakh cheque from the state government to Reddy. Several political leaders including Chintamani Dyan Samantray, Revenue Minister Jagannath Patnaik, Excise Minister Suresh Routray, School and Mass Education Minister S K Matlub Ali, BJP legislature party leader Biswa Bhusan Harichandan, BJD leaders Bijoy Kumar Mohapatra, Amar Satpathy, Ramakrishna Patnaik and Berhampur MLA Dr Ramesh Chandra Choupatnaik were at the airport to pay their respects to the martyr.

In the morning Chief Minister Giridhar Gamang and Orissa Pradesh Congress Committee chief Hemanand Biswal had gone to the New Delhi airport and offered floral tributes to Patra, official sources said.

The mortal remains of Patra was taken to his village.