UP cop who got gallantry medal caught taking bribe

UP cop who got gallantry medal caught taking bribe

Ishita.Mishr@timesgroup.com

Meerut: 02.09.2021

On Independence Day, inspector Vijenderpal Singh Rana turned up in his smartest uniform to receive UP police’s gallantry medal. Days later, on Wednesday, he was booked in his own thana, where he is posted as the SHO, for allegedly taking a bribe of ₹1 lakh to let off a man with a stolen truck.

A decorated officer, inspector Vijenderpal Rana was part of the police team — led by the then SP Ajay Sahni — that had shot dead Shiv Shakti Naidu, a dreaded gangster who had pulled off a sensational ₹8 crore heist in Delhi’s Lajpat Nagar in 2014. Kingpin of the notorious Naidu gang, he was killed on February 18 last year during an encounter. Sahni and Vijenderpal Rana were awarded the Police Gallantry Medal for the encounter on August 15. Vijenderpal Rana’s downhill slide from being a celebrated cop to an “absconding accused” was quick; it took him just 15 days.