Overview
- Instituted on February 1, 2024, the medal recognises excellence across four fields and is announced each October 31 on Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel’s birth anniversary.
- Reports list 19 Jammu and Kashmir Police officers among the awardees for Operation Mahadev, with senior honorees including IGP V. K. Birdi and SSP G. V. Sundeep Chakraborty, while CRPF personnel connected to the case were also recognised.
- Operation Mahadev was driven by Intelligence Bureau inputs and executed by Army 4 Para and Kashmir Police CARGO units in Dachigam, neutralising three Pakistani terrorists linked to the Pahalgam attack and recovering an M4 and two AK rifles.
- The Assam Police STF received the medal in Special Operations for Operation Praghat, a multi-state probe that arrested eight suspects including a Bangladeshi national, with investigators tracing links to the banned ABT network.
- Hindustan Times reported 1,364 awards for special operations and 102 for investigation, intelligence and forensics, with CRPF securing 1,033 medals and state tallies highlighting Chhattisgarh’s 222 awardees and 14 from Jharkhand for an anti-Naxal action in Bokaro.