George Cross: Cops in touch with Scotland Yard,auction house

In a bid to forestall the auctioning of the stolen George Cross medal of Naik Kirpa Ram in London,the Himachal Pradesh Police contacted the Scotland Yard as well as Dix Noonan Webb (DNW),the concerned auction house,on Saturday. The state police has given an assurance of providing evidence to the effect that the document attesting to the sale of the medal was forged and the medal was stolen from the recipients house.

Additional Director General of Police (CID) I D Bhandari said on their request,the CBI has already approached the Interpol to prevent the sale of stolen medal with an estimated price of 25,000 British pounds nearly Rs 20 lakh). In reply to the auction houses claim that they have evidence to establish that Brahmi Devi,widow of the late Kirpa Ram who was the recipient of the medal,had gifted the medal to one Kripal Singh,the ADG said we have intimated them that it was a forged document and the medal was actually stolen from her house in Bilaspur district.

Bilaspur police on Friday recorded the statement of Brahmi Devi,80 at village Bhapral,who said she suspected forgery and theft on the part of Kirpal Singh who claimed he had received the medal as a gift . Brahmi Devi,along with nephew Suriender Thakur,a lawyer in Shimla,has decided to give an affidavit to the Bilaspur police to contradict Kirpal Singhs claim of her having signed an affidavit in 2000 to gift the medal to him. Even the copies of the affidavit which DNW has provided to Himachal Pradesh police will not stand legal scrutiny,alleged S S Chandel,a retired IAS officer and the whistle-blower in the case.