MHA withdraws police medals awarded to 3 policemen

NEW DELHI: The government has in the past five months withdrawn gallantry medals awarded much earlier to three police personnel from different states. The medals of Punjab police sub-inspector Gurmeet Singh, Jharkhand police sub-inspector Lalit Kumar and Madhya Pradesh police's additional SP Dharmendra Choudhary were taken back in view of their alleged involvement in criminal acts and corruption that "soiled reputation of the police," said a home ministry official.

Gurmeet Singh was stripped of the police medal for gallantry, awarded to him in 1997, after it came to the home ministry's notice that he had been convicted in a murder case in 2006. The ministry got to know of the conviction and life sentence only in July 2015, and once it had this confirmed by the Punjab police, Singh was considered no longer eligible or deserving of the honour. "The gallantry award winners are expected to maintain a clean reputation and high moral character at all times. If any past or future act of a criminal nature, misconduct or corruption comes to the notice of the Union government, it reserves the right to recall the honour after due verification," said an officer.

Another sub-inspector with the Jharkhand police, Lalit Kumar, was stripped of his police medal for gallantry in June this year after he was found to have faced disciplinary proceedings/departmental inquiry. It was the Jharkhand police that had brought this fact to the notice of the home ministry.

Also, the police medal for gallantry awarded earlier to additional SP in Madhya Pradesh police Dharmendra Choudhary was withdrawn in September 2017 after the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) questioned authenticity of the encounter that he had been felicitated for. Not only were there adverse observations by NHRC against the said encounter but as per information shared recently with the home ministry, Choudhary was not even a part of the encounter, said a home ministry officer.

Choudhary was posted in Jhabua as Addl SP in 2002 when he allegedly gunned down a criminal wanted by police in the encounter. He was later rewarded with a police medal for gallantrh.

According to guidelines issued by the home ministry, the gallantry medal is withdrawn when the awardee is convicted by any court of law for such an act or conduct involving moral turpitude which brings the police force into disrepute or awardee is dismissed from service for similar act.