He might not have been in the limelight in quite the same way as batchmate and close friend Hemant Karkare, Maharashtra Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) chief who was killed in the Mumbai terror attack. But Vijay Kumar Gupta is much sought after for crisis management. He has received the President’s medal for gallantry four times (1995, 1996, 1999, 2000) and the state gallantry award twice (1990 and 1998). Those who know this 1982-batch IPS officer of the UP cadre describe him as a hard-headed cop who believes in coming together, sharing together, working together and also succeeding together.
Currently Inspector General at the Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) headquarters in Lucknow, Gupta’s latest display of courage was in mid-June when dreaded dacoit Ghanshyam Kewat created a hostage-like situation in remote Jamauli village of Chitrakoot district and killed four police personnel. With police morale low, Gupta was flown to the deserted and panic-stricken village, 300 km from the state capital.
The forest of Chitrakoot, on the borderbetween Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, has been a haven for Naxalites and dacoits for decades. It also achieved notoriety because of dreaded dacoit Dadua, who was finally killed last year. Then the area was terrorized by dacoit Thokia. Now, it was the turn of Kewat who was posing a formidable challenge for the police of both Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. The police was offering a reward of Rs 50,000 for him.
Gupta had earlier handled Naxalite attacks with success, and devastated notorious criminal gangs like Mahendra Fauzi and the Swarna Singh outfit in eastern UP. He was also a veteran of over a hundred encounters. To tackle the hostage-like situation, he took command of the search for the dacoit. As he and the DIG, Chitrakoot division, Sushil Kumar Singh, along with others headed towards the house where Kewat was believed to be hiding, the dacoit threw a grenade at the party.
Gupta was seriously injured, forcing the team to retreat. With wounds in the lower abdomen, hand and mouth, and splinters lodged in the stomach, Gupta was airlifted to a hospital in Allahabad and then to the Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Science (SGPGIMS) in Lucknow. Some splinters were surgically removed but at least 21 remain; there are almost 60 stitches in his stomach and sensitivity of the area is lost. The officer is still battling for life.
It took around 500 heavily-armed elite UP cops and commandos over 50 hours to kill Kewat. ADG (Law & Order) Brijlal flew to Chitrakoot to finish the operation. Operation Ghanshyam was the lengthiest in the history of the UP police. Apart from surprise attacks by Naxals or the recent ambush by slain brigand Thokia and his gang in which nine Special Task Force men were killed, the Jamauli encounter is perhaps the only incident in which four policemen were killed while 11 others, including an IG and DIG, were injured. The helplessness, chaos and casualties in Chitrakoot district has led to questions about the state law enforcement agencies and their style of functioning.
The Delhi-born Gupta’s past exploits include heroic leadership in tackling the Meerut riot in 1987. He also served as a district police chief in Lakhimpur Kheri during the Sikh riots and in Mathura during the Babri Masjid controversy in 1990. Other difficult assignments were in Pratapgarh, Aligarh, Varanasi and Ghaziabad. In Meerut and Saharanpur, he was posted as a DIG. He also served as Assistant to three DGPs – VKP Nayyar, Yashpal Singh and Bua Singh. During training in Hyderabad in 1983, he won the Prime Minister’s baton and revolver for all-round best performance.
