MHA forwards hero officer’s letter to non-existent posts

Major (Retd) Vasant Jadhav, who saved hundreds of lives by defusing a bomb during the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts, continues to be a victim of bureaucratic apathy, with the Ministry of Home Affairs forwarding his latest missive to non-existent posts.

Jadhav was in charge of the Bomb Detection and Disposal Squad at the Mumbai Airport under the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) when he was called in to defuse a 12kg RDX bomb planted in a scooter at Dadar 31 years ago. Following this act of courage, he was recommended for the President’s Police Medal for Gallantry by the BCAS, but was denied by the MHA without providing any reason. While his subordinates received awards on the recommendation of the Ministry of Defence, Jadhav is still waiting for justice.

In his latest letter to the MHA in March, Jadhav had shared his grievance and observed a one-day fast at the same spot he had defused the bomb. In response, the undersecretary to the Union government, DK Ghosh, forwarded the letter to the chief secretary of state Home Department and the secretary of BCAS for “taking appropriate action as deemed fit”. However, both these positions do not exist.

“This is not the first time that I have received such vague letters. There have been eight such instances where their replies are demeaning me. The award started in 1951 and they should have a proper eligibility criteria by now but instead of preparing the criteria, they are harassing me,” Jadhav told The Free Press Journal.

Earlier, the President’s secretariat had forwarded Jadhav’s grievance to the Home Department, but after realising that the department cannot confer the President’s Medal, the secretariat had apologised and said in an RTI reply that the “petition was inadvertently electronically forwarded to the Government of Maharashtra”.