Mumbai: 26/11 hero’s family shocked to get gallantry medal by post

Do not insult our sonrsquos sacrifice by sending his gallantry medal by post We will not accept the same Protocol has to be followedrdquo was the furious reaction of Munim Singh Bhadoriya father of the late Lance Naik Gopal Singh Bhadoriya as the postman visited them on September 5 bearing a parcel labelled lsquoGallantryrsquo from the Signal Record Jabalpur Madhya PradeshThe retired security officer 60 a resident of Bapunagar Ahmedabad even cited the case of Vikas Sharma vs Union of India Civil Writ petition no 878 wherein the Himachal Pradesh HC stated ldquoIt would be a violation of protocol to have the gallantry medal sent by courier Such honours are reserved for formal celebrations of Independence and Republic DayrdquoAlso read 2611type threat Mumbai Crime Branch gives clean chit to 10Munim Singh and Jayshree Bhadoriya parents of the late Lance Naik Gopal Singh Bhadoriya at their house in Ahmedabad GujaratMunim Singh said ldquoIt is a moment of pride for the parents of martyrs to receive the gallantry medal for the supreme sacrifice that a uniformed son or daughter has done during the course of their service to the motherland Our son also fought terrorists during an insurgency operation in Kulgam Jammu amp Kashmir on February 12 2017ldquoMy son had neutralised four out of seven terrorists and was lifting his injured colleague Lance Naik Raghuveer Singh when he was hit in the neck by a bullet fired by a terrorist My son was badly injured but could not be saved Both Lance Naik Raghuveer Singh and my son were subsequently shortlisted for the Shaurya Chakra in 2017 itselfrdquoLance Naik Gopal Singh a BTech graduate joined the Army Corps of Signals in 2003 and was shortlisted for deputation in the National Security Guard NSG in 2007 He got married the same yearldquoIn 2008 during the Mumbai terror strike on November 26 Gopal was a part of the NSG team that was sent to the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel and he rescued many guests who were trapped inside amid gunfire Though he tried to pull out an injured security personnel the latter unfortunately passed away in the hospital The NSG had given a medal to my son for his brave participation in the operationrdquo said the fatherExwife sought benefitsAccording to Munim Singh the couple had been staying separately since 2008 before filing for divorce in 2011 though the decree could not be taken from court as both the parties could not be present during the court datesMunim Singh and a teacher at the Veer Shaheed Gopal Singh Munim Singh Bhadoriya School in AhmedabadldquoAfter the demise of Gopal we learnt that his estranged wife had written to the Army seeking benefits We intervened and filed a civil suit in the City Civil Court Ahmedabad on March 2017 and informed all superiors in the Army and defence ministry about the same and even expressed our plea that the right over the gallantry medal announced for my late son should not be given to anyone elserdquo said the fatherHe added ldquoIn 2018 while late Lance Naik Raghuveer Singhrsquos family was given the Shaurya Chakra the Army had kept the gallantry award of Gopal pending for the court verdict This was confirmed to me during a visit to Sainik Bhavan in Delhi a few months before the gallantry award ceremony and since then we did not get any further communication from the ArmyrdquoCourt verdictOn September 23 2021 the City Civil Court Ahmedabad passed an order favouring the parentsrsquo reception of the lsquogallantry awardrsquo and benefits attached to the same as per the consent agreement filed between the parties ldquoI sent a covering letter and the copy of the court order to all the offices concernedrdquo said Munim SinghThe parcel that was returned by the familyArmy HQ writes to fatherOn July 5 2022 the Army wrote a letter to Munim Singh stating ldquoIf any awardee is unable to receive the award in the investiture ceremony in which their name has been listed 2018 in this case he shall not be invested with the same in the subsequent ceremony And hence the request to receive the award from the President of India was not approved and the Director General Signals has been entrusted with the responsibility of handing over the medal and certificaterdquo read the letterOn July 16 the father wrote a letter to the Director General of Signals New Delhi which read ldquoAs grieving yet proud parents we have had a very long wait to see our sonrsquos courageous supreme sacrifice being honoured by the conferment of his gallantry award at the Defence Investiture Ceremony which is held at the Rashtrapati Bhavan Since his supreme sacrifice for India none from the family was ever intimated or invited to receive this gallantry award in 2018rdquoHe concluded his letter stating ldquoAs applicable to all Shaurya Chakra awardees I too seek to receive my brave sonrsquos award from the President of India Any other form of conferment is denying my son the honour of receiving his award from the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forcesrdquo