ASI Tukaram Omble rushed a car at a Mumbai police barricade on 26 November 2008 and seized a gunman's AK-47 rifle.
The barricade near Marine Drive
Around midnight on 26 November 2008, a wireless message reached the police in south Mumbai: two terrorists were heading towards Marine Drive in a car. Assistant Sub-Inspector Tukaram Gopal Omble, on night duty at D B Marg Police Station, set up barricades to block the road.
The car stopped and one of the men inside opened fire. Omble ran to the left side of the car and threw himself on one of the gunmen, trying to take his AK-47 rifle. He was seriously wounded in the struggle and died of his injuries.
That confrontation took place at Girgaum Chowpatty. The other members of the police team took the gunman, Ajmal Kasab, alive, and he became the one attacker captured during the Mumbai attacks.
From Signals to the Mumbai Police
Omble had served in the Indian Army's Signal Corps, retiring as a naik, before he joined the Mumbai Police as a constable in 1991.
The Ashoka Chakra was announced for him in the Republic Day list of January 2009. The Defence Ministry's release that month spells his name Ombale and gives his rank as Assistant Sub-Inspector. The award was one of 11 conferred on 26 January 2009.
Official text from the Press Information Bureau
On 26th November 2008, Shri Tukaram Gopal Ombale, Asstt. Sub Inspector of Police was on night duty at D B Marg Police Station when the terrorist attack in Mumbai took place. Around midnight, a wireless message was flashed that two terrorists were moving towards Marine Drive in a car. Shri Ombale immediately positioned barricades to block its passage. As soon the car stopped, one of the terrorists inside the car opened fire. Shri Ombale in a daring act rushed to the left side of the car and pounced on one of the terrorists in order to snatch his AK 47 rifle. In the process he got seriously injured and later succumbed to his injuries. Shri Tukaram Gopal Ombale showed raw grit and unparalleled courage in making his supreme sacrifice while fighting the terrorists.
Source: Press Information Bureau release. Reproduced as printed, including any errors in the original.
Cover image: Chinmayee Mishra, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Resized for this page. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Statue_of_Tukaram_Gopal_Omble.jpg