After Akshay Kumar, ace shuttler Saina Nehwal donates Rs 6 lakh to families of 12 martyred CRPF jawans

Ace Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal has decided to donate Rs six lakhs -- Rs 50,000 each -- to the families of the 12 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) men killed in an encounter in Chhattisgarh on March 11. Saina, who turned 27 on Friday, said she is pained by what happened last week and this is a small contribution to the families who have suffered irreparable loss.

"My heart goes out to our soldiers who put their lives at risk to keep us safe. I can't bring those soldiers back who lost their lives in Chhattisgarh but in my small way I want to donate this six lakhs for those families," Saina told PTI from Bangalore.

Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar also donated Rs 1.08 crore to the families of slain CRPF soldiers on Thursday.

Officials said, soon after the incident, the actor approached the Union home ministry with a request to obtain the bank account numbers of the family members of the jawans.

They said the ministry, accepting Kumar’s request, directed the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) to share the bonafide bank account numbers of the families of the slain personnel.

Kumar transferred Rs 9 lakh each in the bank accounts on Wednesday.

The 219 battalion's CRPF soldiers were ambushed by Maoists in Bhejji when the troops were guarding a road being built between the village and Injeram on National Highway-30.

The militants had used locally-made mortars, tiffin bombs and arrows with explosives attached to their heads. The Chhattisgarh Police had said the Maoist attack was planned and executed with "deadly accuracy".

The deceased CRPF personnel have been identified as inspector Jagjit Singh, assistant sub-inspectors HB Bhatt and Narender Kumar Singh, head constables Jagdish Prasad Vishnoi and PR Minde and constables Mangesh Pal Pandey, Rampal Singh Yadav, Goraknath, Nand Kumar Patra, Satish Kumar Verma, K Shankar and Suresh Kumar.

(With inputs from PTI)