31 former, serving CBI officers get police medals on Republic Day

New Delhi: CBI officers who probed big corruption cases like coal and Delhi excise policy scams and the Nirav Modi case were among 31 former and serving agency personnel who were awarded police medals by the President on the occasion of Republic Day, officials said on Thursday.

Former CBI joint director Amit Kumar, who is now posted as Chhattisgarh Police ADG, led the probe into the coal scam that resulted in convictions in a number of cases. He has been awarded the coveted President's Police Medal for Distinguished Service, they said.

During his stint in the CBI, Kumar held many crucial positions, including that of joint director (Policy). He was instrumental in supervising probes against online child sexual abuse, cybercrimes and economic frauds. He also investigated the Bharatpur riots case and was part of the G-20 Anti-Corruption Working Group (Kolkata, Rishikesh and Bali), according to the officials.

Other recipients of the medal are Joint Director Vidya Jayant Kulkarni, who supervised the investigation into the disproportionate assets case against former Telecom minister A Raja, among other cases, and DIG Jagroop S Gusinha, who supervised the investigation into the killing of Dhanbad judge Uttam Anand.

ASP Mayukh Maitra, ASI Subhash Chandra and Head Constable Sreenivasan Illikkal Bahuleyan were also among the awardees.

Former DIG Prem Kumar Gautam, now posted as Uttar Pradesh Police IGP (Prayagraj range), was awarded the Police Medal for Meritorious Service. He launched the countrywide Operation Carbon against online peddlers of child sexual abuse material and probed some big-ticket bribery cases.

As part of the federal agency, Gautam supervised a number of crucial cases, including the arrest of the former principal chief mechanical engineer of the railways from Chennai in a Rs 50-lakh bribery case, and cracked down on criminals using the dark net, cryptocurrency and ransomware.

DIG Sharada Raut, who supervised the probe into bank frauds related to fugitive businessman Nirav Modi, and former DIG Raghvendra Vatsa, who oversaw the probe into the Delhi excise policy case and other corruption cases related to the Delhi government, have also been awarded the medal.

DIG Veeresh Prabhu Sanganakal; Deputy Legal Advisor Manoj Chaladan; Principal System Analyst Srinivas Pillari; ASP Amit Vikram Bharadwaj; Deputy SPs Prakasha Kamalappa, K Madhusudhanan, Ajay Kumar and Akansha Gupta; Inspectors Balwinder Singh, Chitti Babu N, Manoj Kumar, Rahul Kumar and Rajeev Sharma; ASI S Nanda Kumar; Head Constables Suresh Prasad Shukla, Rajesh Kumar, Om Prakash Daloutra and Randhir Singh; Constables Pawan Kumar and Tejpal Singh; Crime Assistant Atul Sareen and Stenographer Subrat Mohanty have also been awarded the Police Medal for Meritorious Service.