Vinod Bhat
On the occasion of ‘RashtriyaEkta Diwas’, Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India has announced the names of recipients of KendriyaGrihmantri Dakshata Padak(Union Home Minster’s Medal for Excellence) for the year 2024. It is awarded for extraordinary achievements in four fields includingspecial operations & investigation by officers of various central organizations under MHA as well as all state/UT Police Forces.
2. It is a matter of pride for Narcotic Control Bureau that 14 of its officers have been awardedthe medal this year. 9 for conducting Special Operations and 5 for excellence in Investigation.
3. The Special Operations Medal has been awarded to 09 officers for conductingOperation Sagarmanthan-1 in February, 2024, in which a total of 3272kg of drugs including charas (hashish), heroin and methamphetamine were seized from an Iranian fishing vessel off the coast of Porbandar in co-ordination in with officers of Indian Navy and Gujarat Police. Sh. Gyaneshwar Singh, DDG (OEC), Sh. SD Jambotkar (Additional Director OPS), Sh. Sagar Pratap Kaushik (Assistant Director OPS), Sh. Sandeep (Insp), Sh. Yogendra Singh (Insp), Sh. Pratham Rathee (SI), Sh. Mohit Kumar (Asst), Sh. Navnit Kumar (SA) and Sh. Akhil Remesh (CT) have been awarded Dakshata Padak for the operation for excellence in planning and execution of the operation in co-ordination with other agencies.
4. Two medals for excellence in investigation have been conferred upon to Sh. Chetan Sharma (Inspector) and Sh. Sachin Kumar (Inspector) of Delhi Zonal Unit for their investigation of cases involvingZambada Cartel, the largest and best rated darknetvendor in India,which involved retrieving evidences from darknet forums, decoding encrypted messaging apps like Wickr Me, Session, Jabber and establishing cryptocurrency transaction chains to successfully link Zambada cartel members to theirreal-world identity. It is also the operation where largest number of LSD blots (29,013)were seized in India.
5. Medal for excellence in investigation has also been awarded to Sh. Aravind M. R., Superintendent (Ops), NCB Hqrs.for his role in dismantlingan international Pseudoephedrine trafficking syndicate spread across Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia and India,in which five persons including a Tamil Film Producer was also arrested by NCB in February, 2024.This investigation earned accolades from United Nations Office on Drugs & Crime (UNODC), International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) and major investigative agencies like Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), USA, Australian Federal Police (AFP), Australiaand New Zealand Police.
6. Dakshata Padak for investigation has also been awarded to Sh. Murari Lal, S.I.of NCB Bangalorefor his excellent investigation in unravelling linkages due to which an entire Cocaine trafficking network involving foreign nationals spread across the country could beidentified and to Sh. Akshay Hunurkar, Inspectorof NCB Chennai for his investigation to bust an international drug trafficking network involved in maritime drug trafficking between India and Sri Lanka across the Palk strait.
