Kerala: President’s police medals for 11 officers

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: As many as 11 police officers, including two senior IPS officers, have been conferred with the President’s police medal on the eve of the 75th Independence Day.
ADGP Yogesh Gupta (1993 batch), who is currently the chairman and managing director of Kerala state beverages corporation, has been awarded the medal for distinguished service, while IG (crimes) Gajulavarti Sparjan Kumar (2002 batch) has been conferred with medal for meritorious service.
A native of Maharashtra, who is specialised in dealing with economic offences, Gupta has worked with CBI and as special director for eastern zone in Enforcement Directorate (ED). While in CBI, he supervised investigation in Ketan Parekh’s stock scam case, corruption cases against income tax and customs officials, and Gujarat riots cases in which 17 accused were convicted with life imprisonment. In ED, Gupta handled major cases like Rose Valley fraud, Saradha chit fund scam, etc.

From the state, other officers who have been conferred with meritorious awards include SP (traffic) B Krishna Kumar, SP (retired) Tomy Sebastian, DSPs A Ashokan (retired) and Arun Kumar Sukumaran, inspector (vigilance special cell) Saji Kumar B, armed police sub-inspector K V Ganesan, sub-inspector P V Sindhu, grade ASIs S Santhosh Kumar and M Satheesan Chandran.
Other senior officers, natives of the state but serving in other cadres, who have been conferred with police medals include CBI joint director Manoj Sasidhar and city police commissioner (Jodhpur) Jose Mohan. A native of Ernakulam and belonging to the 1994 batch of IPS, Sasidhar belongs to Gujarat cadre. He has been conferred with a medal for distinguished service. Mohan, from 2002 batch of IPS and belonging to Rajasthan cadre, has been conferred with a police medal for meritorious service. He had earlier served in CBI in various capacities, in Kerala and Tamil Nadu.