A Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) officer is the lone recipient of the President’s Police Medal for Gallantry (PPMG) announced on the eve of Independence Day on Monday.
The PPMG was announced for Assistant Commandant Loukrakpam Ibomcha Singh, from Manipur. The PPMG is awarded for conspicuous gallantry in saving life and property, or in preventing crime or arresting criminals.
This is Mr. Singh’s second PPMG. He has also won six Police Medals for Gallantry (PMG).
Mr. Singh was awarded the PPMG for an operation in June 2020 in the Kashmir Valley when he killed an alleged terrorist in a “daring room intervention”.
A total of 954 police personnel have been awarded police medals. The PMG has been awarded to 229 personnel, the President’s Police Medal for Distinguished Service (PPM) to 82 personnel and the Police Medal for Meritorious Service (PM) to 642 personnel.
Of the 230 gallantry awards announced on Monday, 125 are for personnel deployed in the Left Wing Extremism-affected areas, 71 from the Jammu and Kashmir region, and 11 from the northeast region.
Among the gallantry award recipients, 28 are from the CRPF, 33 from the Maharashtra Police, 55 from the J&K Police, 24 from the Chhattisgarh Police, 22 from the Telangana Police and 18 from the Andhra Pradesh Police. The remaining are from the other States and the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF).
Four Border Security Force (BSF) personnel — sub-inspector Anurag Ranjan, head constable Abdul Hamid Rather, and constables Amarjeet Singh and Navjot Singh — were awarded the PMG for averting an infiltration bid along the Line of Control (LoC) in November 2020. The gunfight at an altitude of 13,500 feet in Kupwara lasted more than four hours. A constable, Sudip Sarkar, was killed in the incident.
