Union Home Minister’s Medal for Excellence in Investigation 2020 has been awarded by the Home Minster Office to 121 police personnel including 36 Indian Police Service (IPS) officers on 12 August 2020. The list also includes 21 women police officers.

Among the awardees, officers of different ranks have been addressed with the medal on the basis of their efforts, bravery, and smartness to conduct various investigations. The list of 36 IPS officers includes 12 Deputy Superintendent of Police (Dy SP), 7 Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), 10 SPs, 5 Additional SPs, and the other two are DIG and Intelligence Officer.

Vikram Mukundrao Khalate, SP, National Investigation Agency (NIA), Mumbai Branch is among the five NIA officers who have been recognized and awarded the Medal for Excellence in Investigation. Vikram Mukundrao was the first person to handle a case registered under the Anti-Hijacking Act 2016 in the country. He was also successful in securing the conviction of the accused who has been charged with life imprisonment and a fine of Rs 5 Crore.

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Except for Vikram Mukundrao, A P Shoukkathali who is an SP at Kochi Branch office has also been awarded for the investigation of ‘Omar Al Hindi-Kanakamala ISIS Module’ case. He was successful in convicting six accused who were arrested for the conspiracy of executing terrorist attacks on behalf of ISIS/Daish in the South India region.

Dhan Ram Singh, Additional SP, NIA, Guwahati is also among the five NIA officials who have been addressed with the award. He probed the case of the local terrorist outfit – People Liberation Army who executed an ambush on a road-opening party of the 4th Assam Rifles at Chamol-Sajir Tampak road in the Chandel district of Manipur on 15 November 2017.

Dhan Ram Singh also led the investigation of the Hojai (Assam) module of Hizbul Mujahideen which was spread from Assam to Jammu and Kashmir. It took a profound investigation to trace the records of various mobile phones used by the accused. This assisted in connecting the information and getting the details about their travel history, harbors, dealers, financiers, etc. He was also able to file a charge-sheet within 45 days of taking over the charge of the case.

Another NIA Officer, C Radhakrishna Pillai, Deputy SP, Kochi received the medal for his excellent investigation. He probed the case of the ‘Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) Vagamon Case’, in which the banned organization was running an arms training camp at Vagamon in Kerala. This sensational case was a bit of a task for the investigation officer as the accused were scattered all over the country, hiding through fake identities. However, 38 members of the SIMI camp were identified out of which 18 were convicted by the Special NIA Court, Ernakulam.

The five NIA officer who received the medal was Anil Kumar, Deputy SP, New Delhi was awarded for his brilliant investigation which led to the identification and the arrest of members of banned terrorist group Kanglei Yawol Kanna Lup (KYKL) in Manipur and West Bengal.

Apart from this many other officers were presented with the award which also includes the SP of Kaithal, Haryana, Shashank Kumar Sawan who has been awarded for his probe in the investigation of a rape case of a 6-year old scheduled class girl by the accused upper caste person. His excellent investigation resulted in convicting the accused of life imprisonment in just a matter of five days.

Another awardee is an ACP of Pune City Police, Shivaji Pawar who was leading the investigation team for Elgaar Parishad’s case after the NIA took over the case earlier this year. Up till now 12 high profile activists and lawyers have been arrested for having suspected links with the banned Naxalite group CPI-Maoist.