Ashok Chakra for Odisha Police's SOG officer who sacrificed his life fighting Maoists
New Delhi, Oct 14 : An Assistant Commandant of the Odisha Police's Special Operations Group (SOG) has been conferred with the Ashok Chakra posthumously for sacrificing his life while fighting the Naxals, home ministry officials said Sunday.
Assistant Commandant Pramod Kumar Satpathy laid down his life on February 16, 2008 during a fire-fight between the security forces and the Maoists in the Gosama jungle of Ganjam district and adjoining areas of Phulbani district.
Keeping in view his heroism and bravery, Satpathy was awarded with the gallantry medal Ashok Chakra posthumously, a Home Ministry official said.
On February 15, 2008, at about 10.30 PM, more than 500 heavily armed Naxals carried out simultaneous and multi-pronged attacks on the police training school (PTS) armouries located in Nayagarh police station, two other police stations and one out post of Nayagarh and one police station and one out post in Ganjam, the officials said.
Naxalite cadres, many of them from Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh and Jharkhand, participated in the operation in which more than 1,200 weapons of various categories, including sophisticated ones, were looted and 14 police personnel and one civilian lost their lives, the official said.
After carrying out the operations, the militants retreated to the outlying jungle area of Ganjam and Phulbani districts in hijacked buses and other vehicles along with their arms and ammunition.
Immediately after, Satpathy and other SOG members rushed to Nayagarh on motor cycles. Assistant Commandant Satpathy quickly made a plan and with available forces, including the SOG, the Orissa Special Armed Police, the CRPF surrounded the area where the Naxals were hiding.
Subsequently, the team led by Satpathy mounted an assault. However, the naxalites took advantage of their numerical strength and unleashed heavy fire, another official said.
In the encounter, the SOG team had to retreat and in the ensuing operation Satpathy lost his life.
The Ashok Chakra is the country's military award for valour, courage action and self-sacrifice. It is first in order of precedence of peacetime gallantry awards.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Delhi horror: IRS officer's daughter raped, murdered by former househelp
New Delhi (PTI): A 22-year-old IIT graduate and daughter of a senior Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer was allegedly raped and murdered at her residence by their former househelp in southeast Delhi's upscale Kailash Hills locality on Wednesday morning, hours after he sexually assaulted another woman in Rajasthan's Alwar.
Rahul Meena, the 19-year-old domestic help who had worked with the family for around eight months and was sacked around a month ago, has been arrested for the crime, police said this evening.
The woman, who was preparing for the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) examination, was alone in her house at the time of the incident and was found murdered in a room by her family members when they returned from the gym, they said.
Preliminary inquiry suggests the woman was sexually assaulted before being strangled to death using a mobile phone charger cable, the police said, adding they are waiting for the postmortem report for confirmation of sexual assault.
ALSO READ: Rahul meets Youth Cong workers arrested for 'shirtless protest' at AI meet, calls them 'babbar sher'
The police also said they have detained two persons -- a car cleaner in the area, and a househelp in the neighbourhood -- for questioning.
A senior police officer said that the victim's parents would lock the house in the morning and leave the keys outside for their domestic help.
Meena was aware of the location of the keys and allegedly used them to enter the house on Wednesday. The accused was familiar with the household, including its layout and the daily routine of the family members.
He knew when the victim's parents would step out for their walk or gym sessions.
Meena, a native of Rajasthan, had been removed from his job around a month ago for alleged misappropriation of daily purchase bills, the officer said after preliminary investigation.
An official said that the victim was alone at the residence at the time of the incident, adding that the accused entered the house around 6 am, attacked the woman and sexually assaulted her. She was allegedly hit with a stick, inflicting significant blunt force trauma on her face and head.
Subsequently, the attacker strangled her using a mobile charging cable before fleeing the spot. The police also said there is no information about the verification of the accused when he was hired.
The sources said the victim put up a strong resistance, following which the accused struck her on the head with a stick to overpower her before strangling her with a charging cable.
The police suspect the crime was committed between 6 am and 7 am, a time likely chosen as two other domestic workers usually arrive later in the day.
A police source said that after the incident, the family members immediately checked CCTV footage and saw Meena entering their building and going to the third floor of the house belonging to the victim.
The family has already handed over the entire CCTV footage to the police.
The police said the suspect was also seen on a nearby street camera carrying a backpack.
They said Meena is also wanted in a sexual assault case in Rajasthan's Alwar.
"A case against the accused was registered on Wednesday. He committed the offence on April 21 with a woman in Rajgarh and fled from Alwar, around 170 km from here, to Delhi.
"An FIR has been registered at the Rajgarh Police Station against him. We are in contact with the Delhi Police, and a team of the Delhi Police has also visited here to question his family members," an officer in Alwar told PTI.
The police earlier said Meena, who was seen outside the house even a few days ago, was missing since the incident, and a manhunt has been launched to trace and apprehend him.
"We are examining all possible angles and gathering evidence," a senior police official said.
The police received information about the incident around 9 am from the victim's parents, who alleged that their former domestic help was involved in the killing of their daughter.
The police said that the woman had completed engineering and was preparing for the civil services examination.
"What we have got to know is that after committing the crime in Rajasthan, he fled from there and came to Delhi. He directly reached here in Kailash Hills. He knew the exact point where girls' parents would hide keys when they would step out for the gym.
"He entered the house when one of the security guards had gone either to attend nature's call or for tea. After committing the crime, he fled towards the jungle side. We are also investigating if the accused changed his clothes just before fleeing," a police officer privy to the investigation told PTI.
CCTV cameras were installed at the entrance of the victim's room, with the live feed accessible on both the victim's and her father's mobile phones, said the officer.
Earlier, the police said that it was suspected that the accused fled with the mobile phone of the victim. They said that more than 20 teams of different units and police stations were working on the case.
The brutal incident has sent shockwaves across the upscale residential locality. Locals expressed concern over safety and security in these neighbourhoods.
Greater Kailash MLA Shikha Roy said the victim was a bright and talented young woman with a promising future, and her death is a painful loss for the entire community.
"I have known her personally for several years and have seen her grow up as a sincere, disciplined and exceptionally talented girl. She was brilliant in her studies, had completed engineering from IIT Delhi, and was preparing for the UPSC examination with great determination.
"She was an equally good dancer and other cultural activities, and despite being deeply focused on her studies, she remained humble and connected with people around her," Roy said.
A case has been registered, and forensic teams have collected evidence from the crime scene.
Some recent cases involving househelps:
- A horrifying double murder rocked Delhi's Lajpat Nagar locality in 2025, where a mother and her 14-year-old son were found brutally murdered inside their home. Both victims had their throats slit by their domestic help.
- Delhi Police in 2024 filed a chargesheet in the case of a 63-year-old doctor's murder in his home in south Delhi's Jangpura. Police named three persons as accused. Among them was a domestic help. They were charged under sections of murder, robbery and criminal conspiracy.
- A 17-year-old domestic worker was apprehended and her associate was arrested by the Delhi Police for the murder-robbery of a 66-year-old woman in her house in Dwarka in 2023.
