Chhattisgarh STF commander gets President’s Police Medal for Gallantry posthumously

President Ram Nath Kovind approved the award for Shankar Rao for fighting Maoists in Sukma district in 2015.

Chhattisgarh’s elite Special Task Force (STF) Platoon Commander Shankar Rao has been posthumously awarded President’s Police Medal for Gallantry for showing exemplary courage during a Maoist ambush in Sukma district in 2015.

President Ram Nath Kovind addresses the Nation on the eve of 71st Independence Day, in New Delhi on Monday. (PTI Photo)

The highest police medal was announced for Rao, called Fighter Rao by his admiring colleagues, on the 71st Independence Day, which will be celebrated across India on August 15.

He was among the 990 personnel conferred the Police Medals after approval from President Ram Nath Kovind.

Rao was killed with six other colleagues — head constables Rohit Sori, Mohan Uike and Manoj Baghel and Constables Rajman Tekam, Kiran Deshmukh and Rajkumar Markam when Maoists attacked around 60 STF personnel in a forested area near Pidmel village on April 11, 2015.

It was Chhattisgarh STF’s single biggest casualty in a day in several years.

In the same area in Sukma, the Central Reserve Police Force had lost 14 men in December 2014. In 2010, Maoists killed 76 security personnel there.