As many as 151 police personnel, including 28 women officers, from across the country were selected for the 'Union Home Minister's Medal for Excellence in Investigation' which was announced on Friday. The CBI's 15 officers have been selected for award, followed by 11 from Maharashtra Police, 10 each from Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, and eight each from Kerala, Rajasthan and West Bengal Police.
Seven personnel from Bihar Police, six each from Gujarat, Karnataka and Delhi, and five each from Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and Narcotics Control Bureau were selected for the award.
Four personnel each from Assam, Haryana and Odisha were also selected for excellence in investigation. The 'Union Home Minister's Medal for Excellence in Investigation' was constituted in 2018 with objective to promote high professional standards of investigation of crime and to recognise such excellence in probe. It is announced on August 12 every year.
The CBI officers who probed Justice SN Shukla corruption case, booked a retired railway officer in connection with `50 lakh bribe, and arrested Navy officers in a corruption case, are among 15 personnel of Union Home Minister's Medal for Excellence in Investigation. Among winners of prestigious medal is Deputy SP Surender Kumar Rohilla posted in AC-II wing of the agency, who booked former Allahabad High Court judge SN Shukla in a corruption case for allegedly favouring a private medical college. Rohilla was also part of team which had probed death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput.
Pramod Kumar, a Deputy SP in AC-I unit, has been awarded the medal for arresting AK Kathpal, a retired principal chief mechanical engineer of the railways, in a bribery case of `50 lakh. Deputy SP Kumar Bhaskar from AC-I, who busted a major corruption case in Navy in which several former and serving officers were arrested by agency for favouring a Hyderabad-based company, is among the recipients of the coveted medal.
Deputy SP Sandeepsingh Sureshsingh Bhadouriya posted in the ACB unit of agency in Gandhinagar received the medal for exposing corruption by a former joint director of DG of Foreign Trade, while Hemanshu Shah, an Inspector in force received award for arresting two senior Enforcement Directorate officers in a bribery case of `5 lakh, they said. The only woman medalist in the list is M Sasirekha, an Inspector in ACB, Chennai, who got medal for solving `45 crore Chennai Port Trust scam and arresting Assistant Superintendent of port S Raghu Bernard for scam.
Other medalists from the agency are Deputy SP Manoj Kumar, Inspectors Sambhaji Nivrutti Murkute, Sridhar D, Satyaveer, Saji Sankar A S, Deepak Kumar, Anuj Kumar, Amit Awdhesh Srivastav and Pradeep Kumar Tripathi.