India, Sept. 3 -- Group Captain Abhinandan Varthaman, who was awarded Vir Chakra for shooting down a Pakistani F-16 during a dogfight over the Line of Control (LoC) on February 27, 2019, has quit the Indian Air Force and joined a private airline, officials aware of the matter said on Wednesday.

He left the IAF on March 31 and later joined Fly91, a regional carrier, the officials said asking not to be named.

The dogfight in which Abhinandan was involved took place a day after the IAF's Mirage-2000s struck targets in Pakistan's Balakot in response to the Pulwama suicide attack in Kashmir in which 40 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel were killed on February 14, 2019. He was a wing commander then.

Abhinandan, then 35, scripted ...