Pawar said, "The police force has suffered heavy losses. And I know that the very nature of duty makes it high risk. But my senior officers and colleagues are no less than heroes by continuing to work during the pandemic." Police Sub-inspector Raju Pawar, 33, who was one of the first officers to have tested positive for Covid-19 in the Pune police and then again tested positive later, says that firm backing from home and the police force helped him get through the difficult time.
Pawar, who has been posted at Dattawadi police station, first tested positive in the second week of May. He joined duty 28 days after testing positive, following the completion of treatment and quarantine. He tested positive again in the last week of July and rejoined duty 28 days later.
“Those two one-month periods after I had tested positive were very difficult. Now, as I look back, it was very stressful the second time. There were moments when I was at my lowest…But what kept me afloat was strong support and unconditional love from my family. And of course, the solid support from my second family, the police force. I used to receive regular calls from the then police commissioner, joint police commissioner and senior inspector of our police station. Those short calls used to be very reassuring and I knew that they would be there behind me, always,” recalls Pawar, who was first recruited in the police as a constable in Mumbai in 2007. He cleared the examination for Police Sub-Inspector post two years ago.
He says, “The police force has suffered heavy losses. And I know that the very nature of duty makes it high risk. But my senior officers and colleagues are no less than heroes by continuing to work during the pandemic. During the lockdown, my duty was at a checkpoint on Satara Road and avoiding public contact was next to impossible. There are thousands like me. We manage to do our jobs because of the sacrifices by the families of the police personnel and the strong support that police machinery provides as a family.”
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