Gadchiroli cop, who ran marathons to fund studies, gets his 2nd gallantry award for battling Maoists ›
I have lost 25 of my friends in the past five years, and the medal is a tribute to them. Every such incident spurs me to continue my tenure here. RAJESH KHANDWE, assistant police inspector
MUMBAI:WHEN he was a student, assistant police inspector Rajesh Khandwe would run marathons to earn the funds he needed for his education. Now Khandwe, 29, is a decorated police officer whose service in the troubled district of Gadchiroli has earned him the President’s medal for gallantry twice, in 2018 and this year.
Gadchiroli district in Maharashtra has a history of violence, with armed rebels, known as Maoists, clashing with the police regularly. On Friday morning, minutes after Khandwe learnt he would be awarded the President’s medal for gallantry, he was informed that his friend and colleague constable Dushyant Nandeshwar had been gunned down by Maoists in an incident that took place within 200 metres of the police station at Kothi in Bhamragarh tehsil, Gadchiroli. Khandwe, who has been awarded two President’s medals for his actions against Maoists, was saddened by the news of Nandeshwar’s death, but is unfazed by the challenges of the region. “I am not the one to back out of a tough situation. That is how life has been for me,” said Khandwe.
It’s been a difficult but rewarding journey for Khandwe, who was born to a poor farming family from Rajewadi village in Beed district. “I come from a very poor family and my father could not afford our education. I studied in the village school till Class 7 and then was selected to study at Krida Prabodhani run by the Maharashtra government,” said Khandwe. The state’s Krida Prabodhani scheme selects children with athletic potential and provides them training to pursue their chosen sport.
Khandwe would later move to Pune for further schooling and higher education. To fund his academics, Khandwe used to run marathons at Kolhapur, Satara and other districts.
“I used to run just so that I could get the prize money to fund my education. My goal was to join the Indian Army, but my family did not have the money for me to join National Defence Academy. But I still wanted to serve the nation and that was my sole motto,” said Khandwe who holds as his inspiration Captain Krishnakant Kulkarni-dharashivkar, who led a six-member Ghatak platoon of the Indian Army and was killed in Kargil in 1999 following injuries sustained in a bomb explosion. Kulkarnidharashivkar was 24.
Setting aside job offers from private companies, Khandwe decided to join the Maharashtra Police. “While I was in hostel, I had decided to join the police force and had rejected offers from many firms including the Indian Oil Corporation,” he said. In 2015, when he completed his training at the Police Training School in Nashik, Khandwe got his first posting as a police subinspector at Gadchiroli, with the C-60 commando force, fighting the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist) cadre.
Khandwe accepted the posting gladly and wasn’t deterred by the violence in the region. “My parents worry about me a lot and each time I call them, they ask me to take a transfer out of Gadchiroli. But that is not what I want and thankfully, my wife, whom I married in 2017, is very supportive of my decisions. She has, in fact, gone ahead and named our son Veer,” said Khandwe.
In 2018, Khandwe was awarded the President’s medal for gallantry after he singlehandedly eliminated two Maoists in an encounter. Since he joined the force, he has been part of many encounters and in 2017, he was promoted to the rank of assistant police inspector.
This year, on Independence Day, Khandwe was again awarded the President’s medal for gallantry, for actions against the Maoists since 2017. “I have lost 25 of my friends in the last five years, and the medal is a tribute to them. Every such incident spurs me to continue my tenure in this Maoist-prone area of Gadchiroli,” said Khandwe.