The police chief offered the awards under the Asadharan Karya Puraskar (AKP) along with Rs 50,000 each who also received appreciation letters for their work

New Delhi, February 10

Delhi Police Commissioner Rakesh Asthana awarded two police personnel for their “conspicuous role and exceptional devotion” to duty during the February 2020 Northeast Delhi riots.

The awardees are Inspector Tanvir Ashraf and assistant sub-inspector Arvind Kumar. 

The police chief offered the awards under the Asadharan Karya Puraskar (AKP) along with Rs 50,000 each who also received appreciation letters for their work.

The letter to the officials read, “The Commissioner of Police, Delhi, is pleased to award AKP with a cash reward of Rs 50,000 to inspector Tanvir Ashraf for his conspicuous role and exceptional devotion to his official duty. On the issue of the decision of the government to bring the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) & National Register of Citizens (NRC), in February 2020, communal violence engulfed Northeast Delhi. During the violence, numbers of anti-social elements were active through social media. A specialised team was formed under the supervision of inspector Ashraf, who started patrolling in the area in a civil dress to collect information”. 

The letter further read, “It was a daring act of the team to patrol in the area as (general) public, in a civil dress, without any security gadgets, but the team did not care for their lives. The team not only gathered information from the area, but also constituted a mini command room at his own level at Cyber Cell in DCP’s office. He not only prepared the database of PCR calls, injured persons, deceased, viral videos, CCTV footage/videos, burnt government/private vehicles, damaged religious places, missing persons, injured police personnel and locals, but also analysed about 10,000 PCR calls.”

Inspector Tanvir Ashraf showed exceptional courage and determination during the riots putting his own life t stake.  Ashraf’s work in reuniting 756 missing children with their parents, and his performance as an inspector with the legal cell was also appreciated. 

The letter on ASI Arvind Kumar read, “To ensure effective and eventless trial of the riot cases, a mechanism was evolved and a dedicated team of ‘pairvi officers’ was deployed in different courts. ASI Kumar was assigned responsibility to coordinate among pairvi officers, to ensure their presence in court to get updates from them, to compile the daily diary having outcomes of cases, positive and negative orders, and the cases to be listed the next day.”

Asthana has also given appreciation letters to eight police officers, including the current Northeast Delhi DCP Sanjay Kumar Sain, for “improving the quality of investigation in riot cases and for their prosecution”.

An appreciation letter to DCP Northeast Sanjay Sain, CP Rakesh Asthana wrote, “I want to place on record my appreciation for your commendable efforts in streamlining the investigation of riots cases. I have learned that it is through the efforts of you and your team at Northeast Delhi riot cell that not only has there been a remarkable improvement in the quality of the investigation, but the prosecution of the cases has also seen a paradigm shift in excellence.”

He further added, “From achieving the first conviction in riots cases, expedition of framing of charges, submission of supplementary chargesheets to solving of unsolved cases, your presence and leadership has been a constant behind all the successes. Apart from the brilliant work in overseeing the investigation of the riots cases, you have also proved your mettle as a police officer by successfully undertaking every assigned responsibility.”

The officials said that the Delhi Police Commissioner’s efforts to recognise work of policemen has been receiving lot of appreciation from the police. 

The officials added that the CP has a keen knack on supervising cases from top and understanding the efforts behind the investigation and the risks taken by the police officials.