GUWAHATI, Dec 6 � The State Government today announced an annual State bravery award in the name of Gunjan Sarma, the class-VIII student of Simaluguri Kendriya Vidyalaya, who saved 10 school kids from the clutch of a gun-totting violent kidnapper on December 4 in the Simaluguri-Nazira area of Sivasagar district.
The award will be in effect from this year and the first recipient of the award will be none other than Gunjan Sarma herself.
Official sources told this newspaper, quoting Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi, here this evening that the award will consist of a cash amount of Rs 2 lakh, a citation and a memento.
It may be mentioned here that Gunjan had offered herself to be taken hostage by the gun-totting kidnapper in lieu of the 10 school mates, who were all juniors to her, braving a serious threat to her life on that fateful day.
The miscreant hijacked the school bus at gun point, in which Gunjan and her school mates were returning to their respective homes from school, at Simaluguri town and forced the driver of the vehicle to steer his vehicle towards the Assam-Nagaland border. The driver, however, managed to befool the kidnapper by inviting a freak accident near the Santak Tea Estate. There Gunjan had offered herself to be taken as a hostage by the kidnapper in lieu of her school mates.
The kidnapper made Gunjan spend the night of December 4 in a jungle along the Assam-Nagaland border in Sivasagar district and in the morning of December 5, she managed to give her captor a slip taking advantage of his going to respond to the call of nature. She was later found from Rangajan area by the police.
No arrest has been made so far in this connection, although investigators claim that the suspects are in their radar.
Sivasagar SP Bijoy Kuligam told this reporter that at this moment there is nothing that could be shared with the media. �Investigation is going on in the right direction,� he said.
Meanwhile, sources in the department said police has launched operations across the district to nab the culprits based on some specific inputs.
