BHOPAL: An IPS officer posted in Madhya Pradesh has been stripped of Police Medal for Gallantry awarded by the president after the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) charged him with orchestrating a fake encounter.
A notification issued on September 21, signed by P Praveen Siddharth, the officer on special duty at the President’s Secretariat, reads, “the Police Medal for Gallantry awarded to Dharmendra Choudhary, Addl SP Madhya Pradesh police vide this secretariat notification in April 2014, is hereby cancelled and the medal forfeited under Rule 8 of the Rules governing the award of Police Medal.”
The higher-ups at the MP state police headquarters, when contacted about the order, said that they are yet to receive the order.
The concerned IPS officer and present DIG-Ratlam Range Dharmendra Chaudhary told the TNIE “I’ve heard about the order, but have not received it. Once I receive the copy of the order, I’ll make my submissions in the matter before my departmental higher ups.”
The NHRC had raised several questions in its probe into the gunning down of an inter-state dacoit Lobhan in an alleged encounter by a police team led by then additional SP (ASP) Choudhary in Jhabua district in 2002. The NHRC probe based on several evidences, including autopsy had raised several questions about the genuineness of the encounter, particularly the close range gunshot wounds in the slain dacoit’s body.