Martyred major's wife , who herself is an officer receives husband's posthumous Shaurya Chakra .

Late Major Vibhuti Shankar Dhoundiyal was honoured with the Shaurya Chakra (Posthumous) for his role in a high-level joint operation to kill five terrorists and recover 200 kg of explosive material. 

Indian President Ram Nath Kovind presented the award to his wife Lt Nitika Kaul and mother Saroj Dhoundiyal .

ANI tweeted the proud moment for the family and captioned it with, “Major Vibhuti Shankar Dhoundiyal’s wife, Lieutenant Nitika Kaul and mother Saroj Dhoundiyal receive his Shaurya Chakra (Posthumous) for an operation in Jammu and Kashmir in which five terrorists were killed, and 200 kg explosives were recovered.”

Major Dhoundiyal was among those four brave Army men who were martyred in an encounter with JeM terrorists in the Pulwama district. The army unit successfully eliminated JeM commander Kamran, who was behind the February 14 terror attack on the CRPF convoy that killed 40 jawans. The widow of Army Major Major Vibhuti Shankar Dhoundiyal later joined the Indian Army as Lieutenant Nikita Kaul Dhoundiyal.

In February 2020, almost a year after the demise of Major Dhoundiyal, Nitika Kaul left her day job to join the Chennai-based Officers Training Academy (OTA), after clearing the written exam and interview for the Indian Army’s Short Service Commission (SSC), the training for which is given at the academy.

In May 2021, she passed out from the OTA as Lieutenant Nitika Kaul, with Lieutenant General YK Joshi, who heads the force’s Northern Command, pipping stars to her shoulders. A native of J&K, she married Major Vibhuti Shankar Dhoundiyal in April 2018.