Rare police honour for civilian: Dr. Ronald Colaco felicitated by Karnataka DGP
Bengaluru: Philanthropist and NRI entrepreneur Dr Ronald Colaco has received rare recognition from the Karnataka Police for his decades-long contribution to public service, police infrastructure development and efforts to promote communal harmony in the state.
The honour was formally conferred on December 22, 2025, when Karnataka Director General of Police M A Saleem presented Dr Colaco with the Karnataka Police Unique Official Memento, engraved with his name, along with a Certificate of Appreciation. The citation acknowledged his sustained support in upgrading police infrastructure and his role in setting high standards for public-private cooperation in policing.
Earlier, Dr Colaco had also been similarly honoured by former DGP Alok Mohan, making him one of the very few civilians to receive such official police recognition from two successive chiefs. Police officials noted that such mementos are typically reserved for constitutional authorities, senior ministers or visiting foreign dignitaries.
Dr Colaco’s association with the Karnataka Police dates back more than two decades. In 2003, responding to a request from the then police leadership, he undertook the renovation of the Frazer Town police station, now Pulikeshinagar. He went on to design and construct a fully furnished, modern police station spanning about 5,000 square feet, an initiative widely regarded as a first-of-its-kind civilian-supported model police station in the country.
The following year, he reconstructed an earlier police facility at Frazer Town into a dedicated traffic police station, strengthening traffic management infrastructure in the area. His efforts later inspired several large corporates and multinational companies to partner with the state in building police stations, resulting in nearly 50 additional stations across Karnataka through similar public-private initiatives.
In 2021, Dr Colaco added another dimension to his support by building a police museum at Frazer Town to preserve and showcase historical policing artefacts. The museum is expected to be inaugurated later this year. His contributions have also extended beyond Bengaluru, including the provision of furniture and essential facilities to the Chikkajala police station and support for upgrading the Police Officers’ Mess during different tenures of city police leadership.
In Mangaluru, Dr Colaco assisted in renovating the office of the Inspector General of Police during Dr Alok Mohan’s tenure as IGP of the Western Range. He later initiated scholarship programmes for children of police personnel, aimed at encouraging academic excellence. Between 2010 and 2011, scholarships and educational materials worth several million rupees were distributed to more than 550 students, a legacy that has since been continued by his family.
Apart from policing, Dr Colaco has contributed to the development and renovation of a wide range of public institutions across Karnataka over the past three-and-a-half decades. His philanthropic work spans more than 25 sectors, including education, healthcare, judiciary, revenue administration, rural drinking water, roads, sports, disaster relief, places of worship and housing for the underprivileged.
His long-standing public service has also received international recognition. In 2022, the World Book of Records, London, awarded him a Certificate of Excellence for his sustained contributions, an honour announced at the UK Parliament during the Indo-UK Leadership Summit.
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MP: 7-year-old girl raped and murdered; minor relative detained
Barwani (MP), Jan 28 (PTI) Police on Wednesday detained a 17-year-old relative of a seven-year-old girl in Barwani district of Madhya Pradesh for allegedly raping her and killing her by throwing her into a canal, a police official said.
Superintendent of Police Jagdish Dawar told reporters that the body of the child was recovered from the Indira Sagar Canal on January 26, following information from residents of a village in the Rajpur police station area of the district.
He said the post-mortem report concluded severe injuries to the girl’s private parts and attributed her death to drowning.
Dawar said a 17-year-old boy, a close relative of the girl, has been detained in connection with the rape-murder.
The teenager told the police that he kidnapped the girl from her home on the night of January 25 while her family members were asleep, took her to a nearby canal and raped her, according to the official.
When the girl started screaming during the sexual assault, the minor boy allegedly threw her into the canal, with the intention of killing her. The child drowned in the water body, the official said.
The detained minor will be produced in a juvenile court.
A case has been registered under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act and the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, and an investigation is underway, he added.
