Top 5 IAS/IPS Officers who laid their lives fighting Corruption
TOP 5 IAS/IPS officers who died while fighting corruption and upholding Law
IAS/IPS officers are vested with a lot of power. This power is not for personal benefit but for the benefit of the public. Sadly, many officers in their long careers forget this main agenda of their power. They get trapped into Red Tapism and typical bureaucracy falling to the prey of Corruption as well. However, some brave officers shine out as they fight this evil out. Many even have laid their lives for their effort and ideologies.
Here is a list of 5 brave IAS/IPS officers who laid their lives for a great cause.
Chadalavada Umesh Chandra
Chadalavada Umesh Chandra was selected for IPS in 1991 and underwent training in National Police Academy, Hyderabad. In his 8 year tenure, he was posted in various locations like Warangal, Cuddapah, Karimnagar and Hyderabad. He believed in betterment of society and started the famous highly successful public awareness campaign entitled “Jana Jaagruti”, to counter the naxal propaganda. This innovative project immensely helped the police in educating the common folk, and gaining their trust.
Wherever he went, crime rates plummeted. He was called as called as “Cuddapah Tiger” for his sincerity and daring. His reputation of a fair, yet strict administrator helped convince several naxalites to surrender. Umesh Chandra was assassinated on 4 September 1999 when his car stopped at a traffic light. Four naxlaites opened fire on him, his driver and his gunman. On that day he did not carry his weapon. While chasing a couple of the naxalites, the naxalites sensed that he did not carry a weapon and turned back and fired at him twice. He collapsed on the road, at which point they shot him point blank.
His statue was unveiled on 4 September, 2000 at Sanjiva Reddy Nagar Cross Roads, Hyderabad.
Click on the next slide to see more…
Narendra Kumar
Narendra Kumar joined IPS in 2009, he was posted in Bihar and Ujjain before joining office in Morena, Madhya Pradesh in early 2012. He was famous for his active work in trying to stop illegally mined stones and spent a large amount of time in fighting the mining mafia. He was posted in Morena in Madhya Pradesh and was killed allegedly by members of the mining mafia in March 2012. When he saw a tractor carrying illegally mined stones, he tried to stop it, and when the driver did not slow down, he placed his jeep in front of it to bring it to a halt. But the driver did not stop and ran over Kumar, crushing him to death.
Murder of a senior Indian police official by the mining mafia created a debate on Corruption in India. Several activists including Anna Hazare are protesting against the incident. CBI probe was ordered by the Indian central government in the issue. His wife is also an IAS officer.
See on the next slide the brave officer who laid his life to stop mafias…
Yashwant Sonawane
Yashwant Sonawane was a brave IAS officer. In 2010, he was serving as as the Additional District Collector in Malegaon, Maharashtra. Yashwanth Sonwane did his level best curb illegal activities and corruption. Conducting 200 raids in under a week, he counterfeited 180 cases of oil smuggling and adulteration.
was burnt alive with kerosene by the oil mafia at Manmad in Maharashtra. Yashwant Sonawane was building a case against a person named Popat Shinde, the prime accused in his murder. Shinde has been working with the oil mafia for over 30 years. Yashwant Sonawane had seized 4,000 litres of kerosene and 3,000 litres of petrol from Shinde’s dhaba.
“We learnt with shock about the heinous killing of Additional Collector Yashwant Sonawane. He died a martyr to the cause of anti-adulteration drive”, Oil Minister S. Jaipal Reddy said this on news.
Click on next to see the officer who collected 138 crore in two weeks as unpaid taxes!
Doddakoppalu Kariyappa Ravi
D. K. Ravi cleared the 2008 UPSC Civil Services Examination with an all-India rank of 34. Opting for Indian Administrative Service, he was trained at Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration, Mussoorie, for a probation period of two years between August 2009 to August 2011 and was allotted his home state cadre of Karnataka. He was widely popular among the people. He helped them resolve their problems and even participated in their folk festivals. He put a curb on the illegal sand mining that happened in the area and very soon he was transferred to Bengaluru as the Additional Commissioner of Commercial Taxes (Enforcement).
He prepared a list of top-50 tax defaulters and set a target of 1000 crore (US$150 million) tax collection from the tax evading defaulters. He detected service tax evasion worth Rs 120 crores by many renowned firms. The raids reportedly collected over 138 crore in the first two weeks. Following this, he allegedly received threat calls from the defaulters.
His family found him hanging by the ceiling fan in his bedroom of their apartment at 6:30 p.m. There were allegations about suicide but there was no motive for this happy-go-lucky officer to end his life. It is a mystery but do you really think it was a suicide?
The bravest officers of UPSC that laid their lives for the nation…
Ashok Kamte and Hemant Karkare
Though these brave officers did not fight corruption but they do receive the top most honorable spot for their valor.
Ashok Kamte initially made it to the Indian Revenue Service but chose the IPS over the IRS because of his affinity towards wearing a uniform. He joined the Indian Police Service in the 1989 batch of the Maharashtra Cadre. He even represented India in at the junior power-lifting championship in Peru in 1978. Kamte came into media limelight after an August 2007 incident in Solapur when he arrested Ravikant Patil, a three-time Member of the Legislative Assembly from Indi in neighboring Karnataka. He gave his famous statement after this incident “Law is equal for all and nobody has the right to violate it.” At the time of Mumbai terror attack 26/11 was the Additional Commissioner of the Mumbai Police supervising the Eastern region but decided to go against the protocol to help the ATS (Anti-terror Squad) to eliminate the imminent threat. It was his bullet that hit Ajmal Kasab that made him drop his weapon.
Ashok Kamte joined the Indian Police Service (IPS) as a member of the 1982 batch. He served seven years in Australia in the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW). He became the ATS Chief of Maharashtra State in January 2008 According to reports, Ashok Karkare was regarded as very influential officer in police circles. He was the lead investigator of ATS in the 8 September 2006 bomb blasts that took place in Malegaon, Maharashtra. On 29 September 2008, three bombs exploded in Modasa, Gujarat and Malegaon, Maharashtra killing eight persons, and injuring 80. Several unexploded bombs were found in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. As a member of ATS, he leaded the investigation.
Both these brave officers were killed in action during 26/11 attacks while fighting the terrorists. The terrorist Ajmal Kasab was the only terrorist to be captured alive during the attacks and it was because of these two fearless officers. They were awarded the highest gallantry award by Indian Government during peace time, Ashok Chakra (posthumously).