30 CBI Personnel Awarded Police Medals on Eve of Independence Day

CBI Joint Director Manoj Sashidhar who is heading the probe into the bank fraud case involving Vijay Mallya and several other high-profile investigations is among the 30 agency personnel who have been awarded service medals by the President on the occasion of Independence Day, officials said on Saturday. The awards were announced on the eve of 75th Independence Day.

Sashidhar, a 1994-batch IPS officer of Gujarat cadre who is also supervising investigations into the AgustaWestland case, Sushant Singh Rajput death case and the corruption allegations against former Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh, has been awarded the President's Police Medal for Distinguished Service. He is also heading the probe into the bribery of Rs 1 crore which is the biggest in the history of the CBI in terms of amount seized.

Before joining the premier investigation agency, Sashidhar was Police Commissioner of Surat and headed crucial departments such as the Gujarat Crime Branch, Anti-Terror Squad, police manual revision committee of the state among other important assignments, they said. Additional Superintendent of Police Ramavtar Yadav who is heading the probe into the AugustaWestland VVIP chopper scam and Deputy SP Seema Pahuja who probed the rape of a girl in Kotkhai in Himachal Pradesh have also been awarded the President's Police Medal for Distinguished Service, they said.

Other recipients of the coveted medal include Additional SPs Kaptan Singh Lohchab, ASI in Special Unit Naresh Kumar and Head Constable in the Unit Laxmi Chand, a CBI statement said. The Police Medal for Meritorious Service has been awarded to Deputy Superintendents of Police Devendra Singh Chauhan, Naresh Talwar, Ravinder Kush, Harjeet Singh Sachan, Ajeet Singh and Satish Chandra Jha; Inspectors Ganesha Lingaiah, P Muthukumar, M Sasirekha and Jyoti Ranjan Barik; ASIs Veer Singh, Chhigan Lal, Lala Ram and Kanwar Singh; Head Constables Kartik Shit, Ganga Lahari Sharma, Manber Singh Patwal and Ved Prakash; Constables Kuntal Chattopadhyay, Chanthilvel Ponnaiah, Manoj Narayan Patankar and Santosh Mahadev Pawar; and office superintendent Poonam Duggal.

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