A police officer of the Siliguri Metropolitan Police (SMP), will be one of the five officers from north Bengal who will be awarded the President’s Police Medal for Meritorious Service. Along with Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) at the SMP, Achintya Gupta, Deputy Inspector General of Police, North Dinajpur Range, Jayanta Pal, officer-in-charge of the Birpara police station Pankaj Thapa, Assistant Sub-inspector from North Dinajpur Jiban Kumar Barman, and constable of the 4th Battalion of the state armed police, North Dinajpur, Debasish Chakrabarty, have also been named to receive the gallantry awards.
ACP Gupta said the prestigious award would encourage police personnel in the force. Mr Gupta has been in the police for the past 27 years and was associated with important missions like tackling the banned Kamtapur Liberation Organisation (KLO) in Jalpaiguri district in the 2000s. “I am honoured that my name has been nominated for the prestigious award.
I hope it will encourage junior police personnel. I want to convey my thanks to my colleagues,” said Mr Gupta, who also received the Seva Padak in 2004 and the Nistha Padak in 2015 from the West Bengal government. The Union home ministry, which announces the list of the police officers selected for the award in different categories, informed him of the award yesterday, it is learnt.
It is learnt that 18 police officers in the state have been selected for the awards this year. The police officers, however, said they have so far not been informed when the awards would be given away. “We are proud that ACP Gupta is receiving the award for his service, and we want to congratulate him for this feat,” SMP commissioner Sunil Kumar Choudhary said.