An Ips officer and his team have been awarded the gallantry medal for ending a riot by 1,200 inmates at Bihar's Chhapra jail in 2002. They broke protocol by scaling the prison walls during a three-day siege. The recognition came with the Republic Day 2026 awards announcement.
The unrest at Chhapra jail in Bihar's Saran district erupted in early March 2002, shortly after Holi. It was sparked by an order to transfer five notorious criminals to other prisons, leading 1,200 inmates to seize control for three days. The prisoners stacked gas cylinders behind the locked main gate, turning it into a potential bomb to block entry.
Kundan Krishnan, then superintendent of police for Saran, along with bodyguard Jitendra Singh and station house officer Arjun Lal, scaled the high walls to enter. Krishnan told The Indian Express, “The prisoners had stacked cylinders behind the locked gate, ensuring that any attempt to cut through with gas cutters from the outside would trigger an explosion. There was no other way to clear the path. It could be done from the inside only. So, we had to scale the wall.”
With two of three planned teams failing to enter, the trio proceeded alone. They manually moved the cylinders, allowing external forces to cut the gate. This led to a four-hour battle involving tear gas, hand grenades, and defensive firing. Four inmates died, while seven prisoners and 28 police personnel were injured.
Krishnan suffered a cracked finger from a stone and lost a shoe to an exploding bomb. Now director general of operations for Bihar Police, the 1994-batch Ips officer was awarded the Medal for Gallantry on Republic Day 2026, alongside retired deputy superintendent Arjun Lal and sub-inspector Jitendra Singh in Patna. The Bihar government also honored other officers with service medals.
