After making it to the elite Indian Police Service (IPS), it was yet another memorable day for Shalini Agnihotri of Himachal Pradesh today as she emerged on top at the end of her training here.
Daughter of a bus conductor, Agnihotri passed out with flying colours, winning the coveted Prime Minister's Baton and the Home Ministry's Revolver for being the best all-round trainee officer of the 65th batch of IPS.
She was the cynosure of all eyes as she commanded with aplomb the Passing Out Parade of her batch of officers at the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Police Academy (SVPNPA) here in the presence of President Pranab Mukherjee.
Agnihotri, who secured 285th rank in the Civil Services exam last year, emerged on top of the 148-member batch as she completed 46-week police training at the academy.
She also bagged the Vandana Malik Trophy for the best all-round female officer trainee, L B Sewa Trophy for the best female officer trainee in outdoor subjects, Alakh Sinha Trophy for investigation, G S Arya Trophy for best officer trainee in co-curricular activities and the Home Ministry's Trophy for best essay writing on 'communal harmony and national integration'.
Agnihotri has been allotted her home state cadre.
Of the 148 trainees who passed out today, 136 belonged to IPS, five to Nepal Police Service, four to Royal Bhutan Police Service and three to Maldivian Police.
Significantly, 22 out of 136 IPS officers were women while there was one lady trainee officer from each of the three foreign police services that underwent training.
The IPS Association's Sword of Honour for the best outdoor officer trainee went to R Bhaaskaran who has been allotted the Andhra Pradesh cadre.
The President presented the honours to the officer trainees at a colourful function at SVPNPA. Academy Director Subhash Goswami said efforts were being made to make SVPNPA a global centre of excellence in police training.
"This year, the Academy made significant efforts in upgrading the content and methodology of the basic training course of IPS trainees.
"The trainees were sensitised towards gender, communal harmony, national integration, juveniles and marginalised groups to give a proper perspective for meeting the challenges of policing in a democratic society," Goswami said.
Andhra Pradesh Governor E S L Narasimhan, several serving and retired IPS officers attended the event.
