"Odisha mourns the loss of one of its most illustrious sons, Lt Gen (retd) KP Dhal Samanta. He was a veteran of the 1971 War, Op Blue Star, Siachen & Kargil War. A proud alumnus of Sainik School, BBSR retired as DG of Rashtriya Rifles India's main counter-insurgency force in J&K," Patnaik tweeted on Monday.
Samanta was a veteran of the 1971 Indo-Pak war, former Director-General of the Rashtriya Rifles and member of the Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) at Kolkata.
He passed away on Monday, at a private hospital in the national capital.
( With inputs from ANI )