Many Bihar policemen with serious criminal charges against them are still in service and some of them have even been rewarded by the state despite their criminal records, a state home department report has revealed.

According to the report, 264 policemen -- including three IPS officer posted as district superintendents of police -- face serious criminal charges.

The IPS officers in this list include Bettiah SP Bachchu Singh Meena, Buxar SP Paresh Saxena and Railway Deputy Inspector-General Ajay Kumar Verma.

Chief Minister Nitish Kumar recently awarded a police medal for Meena for 'excellent performance in carrying out investigations, encounters, arrests and the rescue operations'.

Meena was decorated a day before the home department submitted the list to the Patna high court.

"The Criminal Investigative Department of the state police had filed five criminal cases against Meena," a highly ranked police officer, who did not want to be named for this report, told rediff.com.

Verma and Saxena face one criminal case each.

Among inspectors, three have murder charges against them and a few others have cases filed against them for inciting riots.

The report comes after the Patna high court directed the state administration to complete an investigation against the police department.

The court had also directed the home department to conclude investigations into all the cases against policemen in the next thirty days.

The court also expressed its unhappiness over the tardy progress in that regard.