Abhimanyu Mathur (BOMBAY TIMES; February 21, 2019)

Saif Ali Khan might have been visiting his ancestral property in Pataudi for a family gettogether, but the actor found time to fulfill a promise he had made to a local family. On Monday, Saif visited the family of late Captain Kapil Kundu, the Army officer from Gurgaon’s Ransika village, who lost his life in crossborder shelling in Jammu and Kashmir’s Rajouri a year ago. Sources from Capt Kundu’s village tell us that Saif had conveyed his condolences to the family back then and promised to visit them later. Ransika is close to the Pataudi Palace where Saif was staying since Saturday. The actor visited the martyr’s family and also accompanied them to a memorial built by the local administration in Captain Kundu’s honour, to pay his respects.

After offering flowers at Captain Kundu’s memorial, the actor interacted at length with the martyr’s mother and sisters. Sunita Kundu, Captain Kundu’s mother, tells us, “He enquired about our well-being and told us that he was honoured to meet us because of how brave our boy was. We told him that even though the Haryana government and local administration had built a memorial for Kapil, their announcement of establishing an institution in his name in the village is stuck due to non-availability of land. To our surprise, he assured us that he would see to it that we get the land for that cause.”

The family says that they wish to establish a women’s college in Captain Kundu’s memory and it believes that Saif — known as Nawab sahib across Pataudi —will keep this promise too.