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‘I GET SO MANY CALLS THAT I’VE SWITCHED OFF MY NUMBER’
Saving a Muslim youth made him a hero, but this SI is puzzled by all the admiration
When sub-inspector Gagandeep Singh left for his duty at the Garjia Devi temple, in Ramnagar, Uttarakhand, little did he know how the day would unfold. That day, on May 22, the 28-year-old SI became a hero, and also a phenomenon on social media — a viral video showed him braving a huge mob to save a terrified youth. The Muslim man was allegedly spotted with a Hindu girl, and the mob was in a frenzy. What stood between him and a mob lynching was one brave sardar.
As social media exploded in praise, the flood of calls forced Gagandeep to block out the world. He tells us, “Suddenly, I started getting so many calls that I’ve switched off my [cell] number. I [also] deactivated my Facebook [account]. I didn’t understand what was happening.” He’s also puzzled by the eruption of admiration. “What’s so extraordinary about a policeman saving a person’s life? I was simply doing my duty,” says the SI. “I saw helplessness in the boy’s eyes. He was shivering badly. He hugged me tightly. He had hope in me. There was no way I could let him down; [then] I would have failed myself.”
Raised by his mother after his dad passed away when he was an infant, Gagandeep has struggled his way to joining the force. “It was always my dream to become a policeman. Not just because I love this uniform. If you really have this desire to change things and fight for what is right, you can do that being a policeman,” he says. “You stand up for the right values, become the voice of the aggrieved, the oppressed.”
Gagandeep’s mother taught him to be fearless. “When I was a child, my mother said to me, sardar ka kaam hai sabki madad karna. Sardar kabhi peeche nahi hat ta,” he recalls. “The foremost teaching of my religion is to help everyone.”
This SI also happens to be a fan of the Ajay Devgn-starrer cop drama, Singham. “In real life, you can’t do what Singham did. But you can take lessons from his intent. Singham fought against evil, and that’s the foremost duty of a policeman,” says Gagandeep. Meanwhile, he is still trying to figure out how to handle all the requests for selfies whenever he’s recognised in public — that, these days, is all the time.
When I was a child, my mother said to me, sardar ka kaam hai sabki madad karna. Sardar peeche nahi hat ta. GAGANDEEP SINGH SUBINSPECTOR, RAMNAGAR, UTTARAKHAND