Excellent work! Meet Sandeep Chaudhary; 2012 batch IPS officer gets coveted medal for Pahalgam terror attack probe | Today’s news
The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on Saturday announced that IPS officer Sandeep Chaudhary, who led the National Investigation Agency (NIA) investigation into the April 2025 Pahalgam terror attack, has been awarded the Kendriya Grihmantri Dakshata Padak in the investigation category.
Chaudhary was among 490 personnel from various states, Union Territories (UTs), Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) and Central Police Organizations (CPOs) awarded for the year 2026. The award, announced every year on October 31 on the occasion of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel’s birth anniversary, recognizes outstanding work, promotes high professional standards and empowers the officials concerned.
While the award announcement recognizes Chaudhary’s contribution in the investigation category, the published MHA award list did not identify the specific case or investigation for which he was selected, PTI reported.
Read also | Pahalgam probe: NIA court issues arrest warrant against LeT chief Hafiz Saeed
Who is Sandeep Chaudhary?
According to PTI, Chaudhary, Deputy Inspector General of NIA, is a 2012 AGMUT cadre IPS officer and is among 123 officers and staff recognized for their outstanding investigative work.
Chaudhary has been promoted as Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIGP) on a pro forma basis by MHA with effect from January 1.
A 2018 PTI report said Chaudhary took time out of his busy schedule to spend two hours every morning helping students with their studies. The initiative supported applicants preparing for competitive exams who could not afford quality coaching.
After that, South Jammu Superintendent of Police, Chaudhary launched ‘Operation Dreams’ to help students overcome academic hurdles to achieve their goals. Initially, he offered free coaching from his office to 10 candidates who wanted to become sub-inspectors in the state police.
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Pahalgam terror attack
On 22 April 2025, 26 men, including 25 Indians and a Nepalese, were killed when terrorists attacked tourists in Pahalgam’s Baisaran Valley. The shooting, which also injured around 17 people, was described as the country’s worst attack on civilians since the 2008 Mumbai attacks.
After the attack, India vowed a tough response and launched “Operation Sindoor” in May, targeting nine locations hosting terrorist infrastructure across Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). Pakistan launched retaliatory attacks that resulted in a four-day military confrontation between the two nuclear-armed neighbors that ended on 10 May.
What did the NIA investigation find?
After taking over the investigation into the Pahalgam terror attack, the NIA subsequently filed two charge-sheets in the Special NIA Court in Jammu. The original indictment filed on December 15, 2025 was 1,597 pages long and included seven defendants.
Among those named were Pakistani handler Sajid Jatt and three Pakistani terrorists Faisal Jatt alias Suleman Shah, Habeeb Tahir alias Jibran and Hamza Afghani. Three terrorists were killed during Operation Mahadev on 28 July 2025 in Lidwas, part of the Harwan-Dachigam forest belt on the outskirts of Srinagar.
The accused also named local facilitators Parvaiz Ahmad and Bashir Ahmad Jothar, who were arrested on charges of harboring terrorists and providing logistical assistance.
In July this year, the NIA filed a supplementary chargesheet naming Hafiz Saeed, the founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), in his individual capacity and as the commander of the unit. The indictment also identified LeT’s proxy, The Resistance Front (TRF), in the alleged plot. This led to an open-dated indefinite injunction against Saeed.
