Twelve Uttar Pradesh Police personnel, including an IPS officer, two additional superintendents of police, two inspectors, a sub-inspector and six head constables, have been selected for the Medal for Gallantry (GM) this Independence Day, with two high-risk Special Task Force (STF) operations in Meerut and Moradabad forming the basis for several of the awards.
Dujana, a resident of Dujana village under Badalpur police station in Gautam Buddh Nagar commissionerate, was killed in the gunfight. The remaining head constables named in the consolidated list include Deepak Kumar, Adesh Tripathi and Prashant Kumar, taking the number of head constables in the UP Police list to six. The STF award document states that the gallantry honours were granted in recognition of exceptional courage displayed while performing police duties.
One of the key operations took place on May 4, 2023, in the Jani police station area of Meerut, where an STF field unit team engaged gangster Anil Nagar alias Anil Dujana in an encounter. The award record states that he was involved in 66 criminal cases. The second major operation was conducted on November 10, 2025, in the Bhojpur police station area of Moradabad district. An STF Meerut field unit team engaged two wanted criminals after they allegedly demanded ₹ 1 crore in extortion and threatened to open fire at a house if the money was not paid. The two suspects — Arif alias Tinda, carrying a reward of ₹ 1 lakh, and Deenu, carrying a reward of ₹ 50,000 — were killed in the exchange of fire. They were allegedly involved in 66 and 23 criminal cases, respectively, including serious offences such as murder, extortion and robbery. The 2026 honours also recognise gallantry in an earlier operation in Gautam Buddh Nagar. Sub-inspector Akshaya Parveer Kumar Tyagi, posted with the STF field unit in Noida, has been awarded the first bar to the GM for an encounter on January 1, 2023, in the Bisrakh police station area. The award record states that the operation resulted in the killing of a criminal involved in 34 cases, who was a resident of Basi village under Khekra police station in Baghpat district.
He has been awarded the GM. Satyajeet Gupta, then additional SP and presently posted as SP in Kanpur Nagar, has also been selected for the medal. Inspector Narendra Kumar is another awardee.
Among the senior officers figuring in the broader 2026 gallantry list is Muniraj G, a 2009-batch regular-recruit IPS officer presently posted as deputy inspector general of Moradabad range.
