Police officers who cracked bank robbery, minor’s rape murder in Pune get Union Home Minister’s Medal

PUNE | In October 2021, a group of five armed men looted cash and gold worth Rs 2.3 crore at gunpoint from the Bank of Maharashtra in Pimperkhed village in Shirur taluka of Pune district. An FIR was lodged at the Shirur police station in Pune rural. A team led by the then police inspector Sureshkumar Raut (now posted at Latur as deputy superintendent of police) nabbed the five robbers. Cops recovered almost all the cash and gold robbed by the accused.

In February 2021, a two-and-half-year-old girl was raped and murdered at a village in Pune district. An FIR was lodged against the accused under IPC sections 302, 376 and sections of the Prevention of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. A team led by assistant police inspector Manoj Pawar (now posted at Solapur rural) nabbed the accused, who was later awarded death sentence by the court.

In June 2021, a gang of robbers attacked a 75-year-old doctor and his 68-year-old wife at their residence in Lonavala, while they were asleep in the midnight hours. The robbers tied the elderly couple, gagged them and looted cash and jewellery worth nearly Rs 66 lakh at knife-point from their house. An FIR was lodged at the Lonavala city police station in Pune rural. Within a week, a team led by inspector Dilip Pawar (now posted at Kolhapur) nabbed a gang of 20 and recovered the robbed valuables.

Police officers Sureshkumar Raut, Manoj Pawar and Dilip Pawar are among the 11 cops from Maharashtra who were awarded the Union Home Minister’s Medal for Excellence in Investigation for the year 2022, at the hands of state’s Director General of Police Rashmi Shukla, during a ceremony at the Centre for Police Research (CPR) in Pune, on Friday.

The other officers who got the Union Home Minister’s Medal for Excellence in Investigation include Deputy Commissioner of Police Krishnakant Upadhyay, senior police inspector Pramod Toradmal, police inspector Deepshikha Ware of Mumbai police, Superintendent of Police Ashok Virkar of ATS, Mumbai, Deputy Superintendent of Police Ajit Patil of Solapur rural, assistant police inspector Rani Kale of State Intelligence Department (SID), Navi Mumbai, of Mumbai police, senior police inspector Jitendra Wankoti and police inspector Sameer Ahirrao of Vasai Virar.

State CID chief Sunil Ramanand, Commissioner of Pune City police Amitesh Kumar, Commissioner of Pimpri Chinchwad police Vinaykumar Choube, Additional Director General of Police (prisons) Suhas Warke, Special Inspector General of Police (CID) Rajendra Dahale, Special Inspector General of Police (Kolhapur) Sunil Fulari, Rajendra Dahale, Superintendent of Pune rural police Sandeep Singh Gill and other senior police officers were present on the occasion.