The felicitated sportspersons at 12th Bihar Samman Samaroh with the guests on Tuesday. Picture by Ranjeet Kumar Dey

A cricket team of differently abled youths was on its way to take part in a tournament when robbers attacked the train they were in. Sukant Kumar, one of the cricketers, stood up to the robbers, raised an alarm and forced them to flee.

On Friday, the 21-year-old cricketer was awarded at a felicitation programme — Bihar Samman Samaroh — at Scada Business Centre in Patna.

Though Sukant, who received the Abhimanyu Veerta Padak, did not say anything, a source recalled the fateful day. “In 2009, Sukant was travelling with his team from Patna on the Danapur-Howrah Express to take part in a cricket tournament. When the robbers attacked the train, Sukant started to shout. The alarm attracted passengers in other compartments and train security, forcing the robbers to flee.”

Like him, a number of other differently abled youths were also felicitated at the programme held by eight organisations — NGO Samarpan, Bihar Disabled Sports Academy, Paralympic Committee of Bihar, Bihar chapter of Special Olympics, Bihar Disabled Cricket Association, Bihar Blind Association, Bihar Deaf Sports Association and Indian Sports Federation for Cerebral Palsy.

Shivajee, one of the organisers, said: “This is the 12th edition of this programme. We aim to felicitate young, differently abled sportspersons who have achieved laurels and also people who work for them.”

Among the other award recipients was Nirmal Kumar, an athletics trainer who has guided more than 100 differently abled children in the past five years. He said: “When I started training children a few years back, I had only one dream: to make them confident. Sports can be of great help to the differently abled children. It boosts their confidence.”

His co-recipient of the Patanjali Samman, archery trainer Chandan Kumar Singh, said: “If differently children are given proper training, they can excel in sports.”

Along with stories of achievement were anecdotes of sacrifice.

Subhash Kumar Yadav, a social activist in Banka who donated his two acres to an NGO working for differently abled children, was given the Best Volunteer Award. Patna-based social worker Saiyad Abbas Rizvi and Vijay Kumar, an activist from Muzaffarpur, also received the award.

Gopa Mukherjee, a Calcutta based filmmaker, was given the Ashoka Samman for her documentaries on differently abled children.