M A I N   N E W S

TRIBUNE EXCLUSIVE
No valour, but MP cop bags Prez medal
NHRC nails the lie after 9 years, wants honour to be taken back from officer
Aditi Tandon/TNS

New Delhi, December 18
In 2004, the President awarded the prestigious police medal for gallantry to a Madhya Pradesh officer, who “displayed extraordinary courage in commanding an operation that resulted in a death of a dreaded dacoit.”

Nine years later, a painstaking inquiry by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has revealed shocking facts — the officer never participated in the operation for which he was feted; he arrived at the spot where the dacoit was killed only after the latter had been done to death.

Also, the encounter -as claimed by the state government in its citation to the President recommending gallantry medal for Additional SP Dharmendra Choudhary - never took place. It was more a case of cold-blooded killing as three of the nine shots that killed the dacoit had been fired from a close range (three feet).

Now, the NHRC has written to the President’s Secretary for considering withdrawal of the gallantary medal conferred on Choudhary, who is now SP and posted in district Sidi of MP.

This is perhaps the first case where the commission has made such a recommendation. The Madhya Pradesh Government has even paid Rs 5 lakh compensation to the victim’s family.

The commission’s December 7 order, a copy of which is in the possession of The Tribune, states, “The Government of Madhya Pradesh completely misrepresented circumstances of the incident as a result of which a medal was presented to an undeserving recipient who, in our view, had broken the law.”

Taking a stern view of the matter, the commission said: “The trust of the President was abused and integrity of the award for bravery undermined on the recommendations made and accepted in good faith for conferring the honour on Choudhary. We place the papers before the President for taking corrective action as she deems appropriate.”

The case goes back to December 5, 2002, when the said dacoit, Lobhan, as per the police’s version, was spotted, chased and finally shot dead in district Jhabhua.

The National Human Rights Commission then sought reports of the magisterial inquiry and forensic experts and found that the encounter story was false.

facts Fudged

• Additional SP Dharmendra Choudhary gets a gallantry award in 2004 for leading an encounter that results in the killing of a dreaded dacoit in MP’s Jhabhua district
• The cop got the award on the basis of a citation by the state government that claimed the officer showed exemplary courage during the operation
• The NHRC probe has now revealed that the “encounter” never took place