Head constable Abhishek Patel has recently been winning hearts after it was reported on Friday about how he had heroically ran a whole Kilometre with a 10 Kg live bomb on his shoulder after it was found near a school. This effort by him to take the explosive away, reportedly helped save the lives of about 400 children. The shell of the bomb which belongs to the army was still live and yet to be diffused. This incident happened at Chitora village of Sagar district in Madhya Pradesh.
His heroics received popular attention when clips of him running with the bomb went viral:
Abhishek (40) when asked about his motivation behind his brave act reportedly stated that when he reached at the spot he saw schoolkids playing near the spot where the bomb was lying. He suddenly saw the kids and without thinking anymore, picked up the bomb and made a dash. He also stated that the values inculcated his father who also was a police officer, were instrumental in him making the decision. His father reportedly used to say to him that a person is a real policeman when he/she takes an initiative to execute an action during a time time of peril.
He also explained his decision to run a Kilometre with a bomb by stating that a few months prior to the incident he was part of another police operation regarding a similar bomb and there and was told that an explosion would impact an area of 500 m in radius.
According to reports, there’s an army shooting range near the village but it could not be ascertained as to how did it end up near the school. In this army range mortars, ammunition shells and other weaponry are tested. During such tests some of the bombs don’t explode and fall in distant fields as a result these misused bombs keep getting discovered by the villagers.
After Abhishek’s heroic efforts, the bomb disposal squads of both the army and the police reached the spot but failed to carry out a controlled explosion on Saturday due to various technicalities which included their insistence on getting permissions from administrative officials and the subsequent failure in getting them. The explosion was finally carried out at 11:30 AM on Sunday which resulted in a black cloud of smoke emanating from the region and noise which was heard for kilometres.
As a result of his heroics, a reward of Rs 50,000 was announced by CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan for Head Constable Abhishek Patel. A reward is certainly the least with the state administration can do for Abhishek but it also needs to be ascertained as to how can such incidents of misused bombs falling near civilian buildings be prevented in the future.