Three Delhi cops get President’s Medal for Distinguished Service

Eighteen officers and personnel of the Delhi Police will be awarded medals for their services on the occasion of Independence Day.

While three Delhi Police officers – Special Commissioner of Police (Economic Offence Wing) Garima Bhatnagar, Dr Sagar Preet Hooda, now posted as the DGP, Chandigarh, and Sub-Inspector (Executive) Satender Yadav – have been conferred with the President’s Medal for Distinguished Service, 15 others have been awarded the Medal for Meritorious Service.

As per senior officers, their outstanding contributions range from ensuring seamless security arrangements during the G20 Summit to cracking down on terrorism and crime in the national capital.

Hooda, who was posted as Special Commissioner of Police in the Delhi Police and was recently transferred to the Chandigarh Police as the DGP, is a 1997-batch AGMUT-cadre IPS officer. He introduced initiatives like “Samvad” and “Parivartan”, which have significantly improved police-public relations and reduced crime rates.

Additionally, as Director Sports in the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, Hooda played a key role in implementing flagship programmes such as Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS) and Khelo India, promoting sports development and excellence.

While being posted as the IGP (Law & Order), Arunachal Pradesh, Hooda’s presence and intervention ensured peaceful conduct of the byelections in the Khonsa Assembly constituency (2019), where violence had previously claimed 11 lives during the general elections. As the Joint CP, Eastern Range, Delhi, he ensured proper investigation while supervising North-East Delhi riot cases.

Hooda also supervised important police arrangements, including G20 Summit and Women Wrestler’s protest at Jantar Mantar as Special CP Law & Order (Zone II). His professional handling of the situation led to lifting of the blockade by 25,000 farmers at the Delhi-UP Ghazipur border where he was specially called to handle the situation in 2018.

Bhatnagar, a 1994-AGMUT cadre IPS, is presently serving as the Special CP (EOW). She has efficiently handled investigations, administration, law & order, community outreach, VIP security, supervision of law & order arrangements on Independence Day and Republic Day celebrations and major international conferences held in the city.

Serving as an Additional CP (Vigilance), she restructured the complaint monitoring system of the Delhi Police ensuring better monitoring, performance analysis of police stations and personnel. As the Joint CP (Traffic), she formulated and pushed modernisation project in traffic, including integrated traffic management system, e-challan system, besides handling multiple international and national events.

SI Satender Yadav, who joined as a constable (Executive) in 1995 and rose to the rank of SI, played key role in apprehending, neutralising most wanted terrorists and notorious criminals in the national capital. He played a pivotal role in the arrest of over 50 militants of various banned terrorist outfits such as Al-Qaeda, Lashkar-e-Toiba, Jaish-e-Mohammad, Hizb-Ul-Mujahideen, Indian Mujahideen and ISJK.

Yadav was also part of encounter at Batla House in Delhi and was conferred the Police Medal for Gallantry in 2015 for neutralising Divisional Commander of Jaish-e-Mohd (JeM) Umar Khitab at Poonch, J&K, and apprehending three dreaded JeM Cadres in year 2010.