Republic Day: Centre announces 939 police medals including 189 for gallantry awards

The government on Tuesday announced a total of 939 service medals, including 189 for gallantry, for personnel of various central and state police forces on the eve of Republic Day.

The Union home ministry published a list containing names of personnel who have been decorated with the police medal for gallantry (PMG), president's police medal for distinguished service and police medal for meritorious service.

No one has been given the top category president's police medal for gallantry (PPMG) this time.

Among the 189 gallantry awards, 134 personnel are being awarded for their gallant action in the Jammu and Kashmir region, 47 for their bravery in Left Wing Extremism (LWE) affected areas and one personnel for similar conduct in the north-east region, a home ministry spokesperson said.

Latur Crime Branch Inspector Gajanan Bhatalwande is among the personnel selected for the President's Police Medal For Distinguished Service, officials here said.

Bhatalwande has served the force for 28 years, during which he has received 53 appreciation letters and 410 awards, officials here said.

The highest number of bravery medals, 115, have been awarded to the Jammu and Kashmir Police, followed by 30 to the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), 10 to the Chhattisgarh Police, nine to the Odisha Police, seven to the Maharashtra Police, three each to the border guarding forces of Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) and the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB), and two to the Border Security Force (BSF), among others.

Eighty-eight personnel have been awarded the distinguished service medal while 662 have been given the meritorious service medal.

42 fire service medals, 37 correctional service medals for police personnel and 51 'Jeevan Rakshak Padak' were also announced.

The 'Jeevan Rakshak' series of medals are given for meritorious act of human nature in saving the life of a person.

CBI officers probing post poll violence cases in West Bengal besides the one who busted big bribery cases in Railways are among 29 agency sleuths awarded police medals on the occasion of Republic Day, officials said.

Joint Director Ramnish Geer, who led the probe in cases like housing scam allegedly involving the then Union minister Sheila Kaul, Naval war room leak case, kidnapping of an NRI businessman and his release besides other high profile anti-corruption cases, received the coveted President's Police Medal for Distinguished Service.

He was among the four CBI joint directors rushed from Delhi to West Bengal to oversee post poll violence cases reported in the state last year.

Others awarded the medal include Additional SPs Satish Kumar Rathi, Anil Kumar Yadav, Deputy SP Nat Ram Meena, ASI Bansidhar Bijarnia, and Head Constable Mehboob Hasan.

Police Medals for Meritorious Service went to 23 officers of the agency including DIG Akhilesh Kumar Singh, who is also in-charge of several cases of post poll violence in West Bengal.

Another DIG Nitin Deep Blaggan who probed several high profile graft cases including Rs one crore bribery case involving a senior Northeast Frontier Railways Engineer has also been awarded the Police Medal for Meritorious Service.

Others who received the medal include Additional SP Arvind Kumar Upadhyay, Deputy SPs Ananda Krishnan T.P., Sanjay Kumar Gautam, Vikash Kumar Pathak, Alok Kumar Shahi and Subramanyam Devendran, Inspectors Nakul Singh Yadav, Amit Kumar, Rakesh Ranjan and Mahesh Vijay Parkar, Sub-inspector Anil Kumar, ASI Dharminder Singh, Head Constables Chander Pal, Loganathan Rengasamy, K.V.Jagannath Reddy, Harbhan Singh and Mahesh Madhavrao Gajarlwar, Constables R.Jaisankar and Kaushliya Devi, Office Superintendent Om Prakash Naithani and Crime Assistant Satyabrata Saha.

With inputs from ANI

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