a three-bedroom bungalow for his retirement. Just six months later, on 10 August 1986, he was shot to death in his white Maruti 800, bearing Registration No. DIB 1437, while driving home from the market on Rajendrasinhji Marg, at around 11:45 a.m. According to police, four reportedly clean-shaven men pulled up alongside the car on motorcycles, with the lead assassin firing three shots into Vaidya through the driver's-side window; the first two bullets penetrated his brain and killed him instantly. His car steered towards a cyclist named Digamber Gaikwad, and the cycle was crushed, though the cyclist escaped unharmed, the general's car stopping in front of a compound wall. A third bullet struck Vaidya in the shoulder, with another striking his wife Bhanumati in the neck. His bodyguard, who was also in the car, was wounded by four bullets in his back and thighs. The bleeding general was carried to the Command Hospital in a passing green matador van, and was declared brought dead. The witnesses who deposed in court said that the assailants were clean shaven, but later in turban and beard in court. According to Indian intelligence sources, Vaidya had been the number four assassination target on lists of Sikh terrorists and he was one of several people killed in retaliation for Operation Blue Star. Vaidya was cremated in Pune with full military honours; in attendance were his wife, daughters Nita Kochhar, Parijat Belliappa and Tarini Vaidya, Union ministers V.P. Singh, V.N. Gadgil and Arun Singh, the three service chiefs, Governor of Maharashtra Shankar Dayal Sharma and Chief Minister of Maharashtra S.B. Chavan, along with over 50,000 other mourners. Following the assassination, the Khalistan Commando Force issued a statement declaring that Vaidya had been killed in retaliation for the Golden Temple operation. The assassination shocked India, and security measures for senior military commanders, particularly for those who had taken part in Blue Star, were immediately stepped up. Local anti-Sikh rioting broke out in Pune and Mumbai after Vaidya's assassination; a number of people were stabbed and several Sikh-owned businesses were attacked. In 1989, Khalistani militant Sukhdev Singh Sukha and Khalistani militant Harjinder Singh Jinda were sentenced to death for the killing. Despite admitting to the killing, they pleaded not-guilty, justifying their actions by stating that Vaidya was "guilty of a serious crime, the punishment for which could only be death". The two were executed on 9 October 1992.