Players dream of winning National, World, Padma Shri awards. When this position is achieved after years of hard work, the faces of the players light up. The city, state and country feel proud with him. But when this award is stolen and even after years our High Court police could not recover it, then it is bound to raise questions on policing.
It has been three years since the Padmashree of mountaineer Padmashree awardee Premlata Agarwal, who made the city and the country proud of her achievement, has been stolen, but till date the police have not been able to do anything other than giving assurances. This is the situation of international boxer Aruna Mishra. Thieves stole many national and international medals five years ago.
Even after the complaint, the police have not been able to recover it till date. After the incident, the police had claimed that the award would be recovered after catching the thieves, but till date the police could neither catch the thieves nor recover the award. Both the heroines regret that the police have not been able to recover their stolen award till now. Aruna Mishra is currently Inspector in Jamshedpur Rail Zone.
SSP and station in-charge also changed, but police could not recover Padma Shri award
City-based mountaineer Premlata Agarwal, who conquered Everest, was awarded the Padma Shri in 2013 by the then President Pranab Mukherjee. But, on June 14, 2020, 15 silver coins including Padmashree Award, two computer hard disks, Rs 20 thousand in cash and goods worth lakhs of rupees were stolen from his residence at Kadma KD flat.
Premlata Agarwal’s husband Vimal Agarwal told that after the theft incident, the then SSP Anoop Birthare, along with the station in-charge had come home to investigate all the cases. He had claimed that within 24 hours the thieves would be caught and the award recovered. But regret that nothing has been recovered so far. The SSP and station in-charge changed, but the award was not received. Padma Shri Award is very important for one’s life. Even today, we are sad that the police could not get back the stolen award.
It was stolen five years ago, till now the medal still hurts: Aruna Mishra
On March 2018, international boxer and currently GRP Inspector Aruna Mishra’s Agrico Cross Road 10’s quarter number L4-13 was stolen in broad daylight including four gold medals, laptop, tab, Rs 1.5 lakh cash, jewelery worth Rs 15 lakh. The theft took place between 3 and 3:30 in the day. Aruna Mishra went to her office overseas branch. On returning, he found that all the medals, awards and other things kept in the house had been stolen.
He lodged an FIR in Sidgora police station. The police took the help of sniffer dogs. The police arrested two youths including a minor and a jewelery seller in the case. Apart from some stolen jewelry, the police recovered tabs and laptops from the arrested youths. But the police could not recover the stolen gold medals and awards. Aruna Mishra told that she worked hard for years for the medal, but in a moment the thieves destroyed all her hard work. Even after five years, the police could not trace the medal. The pain of not getting the medal still haunts me.
ongoing investigation
The investigation is going on in the case of theft of Padma Shri award from Premlata Agarwal’s house. So far no one has been arrested and neither the stolen goods have been recovered.
Ashok Kumar Ram, Station House Officer, Kadma
medals not recovered
Some people were caught and sent to jail in the theft case. However, the medal could not be recovered. The current status of the case is not known.
Ranjit Kumar, Station House Officer, Sidhgora