Now Reading: UP STF inspector Sunil Kumar awarded Kirti Chakra posthumously
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UP STF inspector Sunil Kumar awarded Kirti Chakra posthumously
UP Special Task Force inspector Sunil Kumar has been awarded the Kirti Chakra posthumously, the second-highest peacetime gallantry award, for exceptional courage during an encounter with armed criminals in Shamli district in…
The Story in Brief
UP Special Task Force inspector Sunil Kumar has been awarded the Kirti Chakra posthumously, the second-highest peacetime gallantry award, for exceptional courage during an encounter with armed criminals in Shamli district in January 2025. He is the first UP STF personnel to receive the honour. Kumar was fatally wounded on January 20 while leading an operation against the Muqeem Kala gang in Jhinjhana area. He died on January 22 at a hospital in Gurugram.
According to the citation, Kumar's team had intelligence that gangster Arshad, carrying a reward of Rs 1 lakh, and others were travelling in a white car. Despite intense firing from the criminals, Kumar moved to close in and was hit. Three criminals were killed in the exchange. Kumar had also received a Gallantry Medal posthumously this Independence Day for a 2023 encounter.
The Indian Opinion
Stories of individual valor like Sunil Kumar's rightly earn national admiration, but they risk obscuring the chronic understaffing and lack of protective gear that force STF teams into such perilous close-quarter fights. Every year, hundreds of policemen die on duty across states. The question is not whether one hero deserves a medal, but whether the system will use this moment to audit the safety protocols that might have saved him.
Source: hindustantimes.com
This story was synthesised by AI from the source linked above.
