CRPF, Jammu and Kashmir cops jointly bag 62% police gallantry medals | India News

NEW DELHI: The CRPF and J&K Police have together bagged over 62% of the police gallantry medals awarded this Independence Day, with 204 (58%) of the total 347 medals awarded in this category honouring personnel for counter-terror successes in J&K, 80 for action against Left-wing extremists and 14 for crushing insurgency in the northeast.
A total 1,082 personnel of various central paramilitary forces and state police were awarded police medals this I-Day 2022 in three categories — 347 police medals for gallantry (PMG), 87 President’s police medals for distinguished service (PPM) and 648 police medals for meritorious service (PM). The CRPF leads the tally with a total 171 medals, followed by J&K police with 125, Maharashtra Police with 84, UP police with 80 and BSF with 70.
Delhi Police received a total of 18 police medals, including one PMG, two PPM and 16 PM. No President’s police medals for gallantry (PPMG) — the highest rated police medal for acts of bravery — was awarded this year either to any police or paramilitary personnel.

In terms of gallantry awards, CRPF and J&K police were almost neck-and-neck with a haul of 109 and 108 medals, respectively. While 83 CRPF personnel were honoured for gallant acts in J&K, 26 gallantry medals were in respect of counter-Naxal action. Maharashtra police were a distant third with 42 of its personnel honoured for gallantry, followed by the BSF with 19 PMGs and Chhattisgarh police with 15.
As many as 30 police gallantry medals have been awarded posthumously. These include 11 personnel from BSF; six from Jharkhand Police; four from CRPF; three each from Maharashtra Police and Chhattisgarh Police; and one each from Delhi Police, Assam Rifles and Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB).

Among the central paramilitary forces, CRPF personnel got the highest tally of 171 police medals in all categories, followed by BSF with 70 medals, Intelligence Bureau with 34 medals, CBI with 30, CISF with 24, ITBP with 20, Railway Protection Force (RPF) with 16 medals and SSB with six medals.
The NSG won four police medals, while NIA, NDRF and SPG won three medals each and Assam Rifles, 15 medals.
Among the 19 gallantry medal awardees from BSF are SI Rakesh Dobhal, who attained martyrdom during the gallant act, head constable Naseeb Singh and constable Rajesh Kannanall of who neutralised and destroyed enemy posts while retaliating a ceasefire violation by the Pakistani Army along the J&K border.
Three CRPF personnel were honoured for a counter-terror operation in Zadoora, Pulwama, in August 2020, in which three terrorists, including one from Jaish and two from Hizbul Mujahideenfiring from the cowshed of a house, were killed. Four other CRPF personnel got the gallantry medal for a March 2021 operation in Batpora, Shopian that led to the neutralisation of four Lashker-e-Toiba terrorists, with no collateral damage despite a huge crowd of miscreants having gathered at the encounter site to pelt stones and raise slogans against the security forces.
Nine personnel of Maharashtra Police were rewarded for valiantly fighting Naxalites during an operation in Gadchiroli district in May 2020, foiling a potential plan by them to commit a subversive act with an aim to “unseat the democratically elected government”, states the citation. The armed Naxalites were allegedly acting at the behest of top CPI (Maoist) leaders Basavaraj and Milind Teltumbade. Teltumbade, a central committee member of the CPI (Maoist), is an accused in the Elgar Parishad-Bhima Koregaon case being probed by NIA.
ITBP was awarded six medals for fighting Naxals in Rajnandgaon. In one of these operations dated January 14, 2018, Naxal commander Raju DantewadaMorecarrying a reward of Rs 3 lakh, was killed.