It's a proud moment for us, says wife of Inspector Mohan Chand Sharma

New Delhi: Maya Sharma, the widow of Delhi Police Inspector Mohan Chand Sharma, has expressed her satisfaction after her husband was awarded the police medal for gallantry posthumously on the occasion of the 74th Independence Day on Saturday.

"Today my husband got the seventh police medal for gallantry; I want to thank the government for this. He has also got two President's medal for gallantry, and the Ashok Chakra. It is a proud moment for us," she said.

"I also want to congratulate his team members who worked with him shoulder to shoulder, Jai Hind" she added.

Inspector Mohan Chand Sharma, who was killed during the 'Batla House' encounter in 2008, was awarded a police gallantry medal posthumously for the seventh time on the occasion of Independence Day on Saturday.

Inspector Sharma was conferred with the Ashok Chakra, India's highest peacetime gallantry award, in 2009.

He was also a part of an operation in Jammu where he and his team confronted some Jaish-e-Mohammed militants in 2007, for which he was given the gallantry award.

In the shoot-out in Jammu on August 11, 2007, Sharma and his team had shot dead Asif alias Qari, a Pakistani citizen, who was then the divisional commander of JeM (Jammu region). Qari's accomplice Zaffar Iqbal was arrested after the shoot-out. The two were involved in an attack in Ayodhya.

Other members of Sharma's team -- Inspectors Kailash Bisht and Dharmender Kumar, Sub-inspector Devender Singh, and Assistant Sub-inspectors Nissar Ahmed Shaik and Pravesh Rathi -- have also been awarded gallantry medals.

Thirty-five Delhi Police personnel were conferred with police medals for their services on Saturday -- 16 with Police Medal for Gallantry, three with President's Police Medal for Distinguished Service and 16 with Police Medals for Meritorious Service.