Slain Odisha asst commandant to figure in memorial to be inaugurated by PM

Assistant commandant Pramod Kumar Satpathy, who sacrificed his life fighting Naxals, would be among those whose names would figure in a memorial to be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Ministry officials said Sunday.

Assistant commandant of the Odisha Police's Special Operations Group (SOG) Satpathy was conferred with the Ashok Chakra posthumously in 2009 for his brave act, they said.

He laid down his life on February 16, 2008 during a firefight between the security forces and the Maoists in the Gosama jungle of Ganjam district and adjoining areas of Phulbani district, they recalled.

The memorial has been constructed as a tribute for all police personnel who laid down their lives since the country's Independence.

Modi will inaugurate it on occasion of the Police Commemoration Day on October 21.

Satpathy had laid down his life on February 16, 2008 during a firefight between the security forces and the Maoists in the Gosama jungle of Ganjam district and adjoining areas of Phulbani district, the ministry official recalled.

The 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 in Nayagarh police station, some of its outposts and one out post in Ganjam.

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 officials 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 motorcycles. The assistant commandant quickly made a plan and with available forces, including the SOG, the Odisha 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, they 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.