CRPF commando gets Shaurya Chakra for anti-Naxal operation

930 police personnel decorated with gallantry,other medals on Independence Day eve.

CRPF commando Ashish Kumar Tiwari is the lone policeman to be decorated with the Shaurya Chakra posthumously this Independence Day for single-handedly pinning down a squad of Maoists which resulted in the killing of top Naxal leader Sidhu Soren in West Bengal last year.

Tiwari,a commando of the elite 202 Commando Battalion for Resolute Action CoBRA,suffered multiple bullet injuries during the assault but did not let the holed-up Maoists flee and kept firing from his INSAS rifle till he breathed his last. The operation on July 26 last year in the forests of Kamya village of West Midnapore district was hailed as one of the major successes for security forces conducting anti-Naxal operations in the area.

The government announced President8217;s Police Medal for gallantry to seven personnel,Police Medal for gallantry to 95 personnel,President8217;s Police Medal for distinguished service to 93 personnel and Police Medal for meritorious service to 735 personnel.

The CRPF was awarded the highest number of gallantry medals among all police forces. CRPF officers/men have been awarded with 95 medals,including 26 police medal for gallantry three posthumously,five Police Medal for distinguished service and 64 police medal for meritorious service.

CRPF DIG Nalin Prabhat,commander of the force during the deadly Naxal ambush in Dantewada last year,and Madhya Pradesh ATS constable Sitaram Yadav,who was killed by SIMI operatives in 2009,are among the 930 police personnel decorated with gallantry and other medals.

Prabhat was heading the operations of the force when 75 CRPF men and a state police personnel were killed in one of the deadliest Maoist attacks on police forces,in Chhattisgarh8217;s Dantewada district on April 6 last year.

Constable Yadav 32 of the MP Anti-Terror Squad ATS,who has been posthumously honoured,was killed in Khandwa district of the state in November 2009 by Students Islamic Movement of India SIMI operatives. Yadav was instrumental in cracking several modules of SIMI.

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Eighteen officers of the ITBP,including mountaineer Harbhajan Singh,have been awarded police medals for distinguished and meritorious service. Singh,a DIG,has conquered Mt Everest and various other peaks numerous times and has been awarded the President8217;s Police medal for distinguished service along with two other DIGs,R K Saini and R K D Singh.

Thirty-two Central Industrial Security Force personnel have been awarded police medals for distinguished and meritorious service on the eve of Independence Day. The awardees include Inspector General S B Singh who was instrumental in major operations against insurgent groups like UNLF,ULFA and NDFB during his tenure in the Northeast.

The pilots of the Army Aviation Corps,Major Atul Garje and Major Bhanu Chander who died in the Nasik helicopter crash have been declared the recipients of Sena medal posthumously.

Twenty-four CBI officials have been awarded police medals for distinguished and meritorious service. The distinguished service awardees include B P Bagchi Addl SP,Raman Rajaram Tyagi Addl.SP,Som R Thakur Deputy SP,Sant Ram Nagar ASI and Jagdish Chand Head Constable. Among those chosen for meritorious service award are L S Padma Kumar,Addl SP,Nagendra Prasad Addl SP,C S Moni Deputy SP,Mahesh K Puri Deputy SP,Rohit Srivastava Deputy SP and Mahesh Kumar Deputy SP,Ravi Gabhir DSP,Bharat Singh Inspector ACU-VI.