‘Ending Naxalism would be fitting tribute': Family remembers police officer killed in IED blast as ‘strongest pillar'
Putting an end to Naxalism would be the most fitting tribute to Additional Superintendent of Police Akash Rao Giripunje (42), who was killed in an improvised explosive device (IED) blast in Chhattisgarh's Sukma district, his family said Tuesday after his body was brought back home to Raipur.
Giripunje died on Monday morning after he accidentally stepped on a pressure IED, planted by Maoists, when he and his team went to check on a JCB machine that was set on fire at Dondra village.
At a wreath-laying ceremony organised in Raipur on Tuesday, Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai declared that 'Giripunje's sacrifice will not go in vain'. Assembly Speaker Raman Singh, Home Minister Vijay Sharma, Deputy Chief Minister Arun Sao, and other ministers and senior police officers were also present.
A B.Com graduate, Giripunje worked as a bank official for four-and-a-half years before joining the Chhattisgarh Police in 2013.
He became well-known in the police force through his singing at police events. He also wrote poems.
He was from an economically backward family that had migrated from neighbouring Maharashtra to a settlement in Raipur, where his grandfather ran a garage at a rented premises. His father, Govind Rao, still runs the same garage.
Giripunje was one of five siblings. The youngest sibling, 26-year-old Adarsh, an MBBS graduate, said, 'My brother was the strongest pillar of our family. We have three sisters, and all are well-educated. He built a new house for our family and bought land on loan. He took care of all my education expenses. He was a father figure and a guiding spirit. I could not imagine in my wildest dreams that this would happen to us. Now, I have to handle the responsibilities of the house and I need to be strong.'
Adarsh said that ASP Giripunje said in his last call that he was 'excited to come home for his six-year-old daughter's birthday on June 11'.
'We were to celebrate her birthday at her mother's place in Bhandara, Maharashtra. In May, he had come to Raipur just for a day to attend his seven-year-old son's birthday,' Adarsh said.
He also said the family is proud of Giripunje and that 'a fitting tribute for his supreme sacrifice would be putting an end to Naxalism'.
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