4 Jan : The government has recommended withdrawal of police medal given to former Haryana DGP S P S Rathore and announced that any police officer convicted for “moral turpitude” or bringing “disrepute or disrespect” to the service will be stripped of awards.
“The Central Police Awards Committee (CPAC) has taken two primary decisions. The committee recommended to the President for the withdrawal of police medal given to former Haryana DGP S P S Rathore,” Union Home Secretary Gopal K Pillai, who heads the committee, told reporters in New Delhi.
Rathore, convicted for the molestation of teenager Ruchika Girhotra stands stripped off his 1985 police medal with this decision.
“The CPAC has also taken a generic decision to authorize the Ministry of Home Affairs to recommend the withdrawal of police medal to all persons who are convicted for moral turpitude and for an act that brings disrespect to police forces, or any officer who is dismissed from the service for his act which brought disrepute to the police,” Pillai said.
With this decision, suspended IPS officer R K Sharma, convicted in the journalist Shivani Bhatnagar murder case, will also stand to lose his medal along with some other police officers.
Earlier, Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda recommended withdrawal of the police medal of Rathore who has been convicted in the Ruchika molestation case.
In a letter to Union Home Minister P Chidambaram, Hooda had said Rathore has brought “disrepute and bad name” to the state and the police force.
The letter also mentioned “moral turpitude” on the part of Rathore in the case.
