The Government of India Thursday announced the names of 152 police personnel, including 28 women officers, who have been awarded the ‘Union Home Minister’s Medal for Excellence in Investigation’ for 2021.
Rakesh Balwal, Superintendent of Police, National Investigation Agency, who unraveled the 2019 Pulwama terror attack case, in which 40 Central Reserve Police Force were killed, is among the awardees.
M. Harsha Vardhan, an Additional Commissioner of Police in the Arunachal Pradesh Police, has also been awarded for the probe into the Arunachal “cash-for-job” Staff Selection Board scam, in which 19 people were charge-sheeted.
These 152 personnel are posted across agencies through the length and breadth of the country.
Among the awardees, 15 are from the Central Bureau of Investigation, 11 each from Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra Police, 10 from Uttar Pradesh Police, nine each from Kerala and Rajasthan Police, eight from Tamil Nadu Police, seven from Bihar Police, six each from Gujarat, Karnataka and Delhi Police, and five from NIA.
The rest are from the other states and union territories.
According to a government official, the award was constituted in 2018 with the objective to “promote high professional standards of investigation of crime and to recognise such excellence in investigation by investigating officers”.
The award, the official said, has “encouraged officers”. “It is always good to appreciate and reward hard work and that is what this medal does. It is not just encouraging for officers who toil to gather evidence, but also satisfying when their efforts are appreciated,” the official said on condition of anonymity.
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