Himanshu Roy was the Additional Director General of police and committed suicide by shooting himself in his home. The incident sent shock waves through the Mumbai police community and saw everyone from his gym buddies to Bollywood celebs mourning his death. On his first death anniversary, we remember the illustrious life of Mumbai's top cop
Updated On: 2019-05-11 02:30 PM IST
Maharashtra's Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) Himanshu Roy committed suicide by shooting himself in the mouth with his service revolver at his house in Suniti Apartments at Nariman Point shortly after 1 p.m. on May 11, 2018. He was rushed to the Bombay Hospital by family members and aides where he was declared dead. A suicide note found in the house quoted Roy as saying that he was taking his life because he was disgusted with cancer, which he had been battling for some time
Hours before his death, Himanshu Roy had a proper breakfast and even asked his cook to prepare his favourite dish. Investigators also believe the revolver he used was removed from his locker a day earlier. Officials said Himanshu Roy shot himself in the bedroom. Upon hearing the gunshot, his wife Bhavana and two domestic helps rushed in. He was then taken to the Bombay hospital and declared dead around 1.47 pm Pic/Datta Kumbhar
Investigators also believe the revolver Himanshu Roy used was removed from his locker a day earlier. Director general of police Satish Mathur said Roy left behind a suicide note saying, 'No one is responsible for my suicide.' The Mumbai Police said Himashu Roy had signed it. Mathur said Himanshu Roy was a very capable officer, a nice person and a gentleman
Himanshu Roy's driver constable Mahadev Maske was the first person to contact the control room of Mumbai Police and tell them about the incident. The control room alerted local police who rushed to Roy's house and Bombay hospital. The news of his suicide shocked all of Mumbai police, as the officer was a very prominent face in the city and state police forces. He had been out of action for the past two years due to his cancer treatment
According to the Mumbai Police, Himanshu Roy's disappointment with fighting bone marrow cancer for the last two years might have led to him taking the extreme step, which has also been mentioned in his suicide note. That being said the doctor treating Himanshu Roy said that cancer was not the reason behind top cop Himanshu Roy's suicide, the oncologist treating him told mid-day. Nashik-based Dr. Raj Nagarkar said no cancerous traces were found in his body after a PET scan on April 30, 2018.
In picture: Police officials stand outside Bombay Hospital, where Roy was rushed to after his wife found him
A noted police historian and family friend, Deepak Rao said, 'My association with Roy goes back a long way to when he was studying at Campion School as his father was my personal doctor. Raised in Colaba, Roy was the only child of Dr. Dasondi and his wife, and the apple of their eye. I always recall him as being a slim child, very unlike the beefy cop that he went on to become. While he went on to pursue chartered accountancy, his heart was always set on joining the IPS. I still remember his father asking me to help him prepare for the viva exams. But, he was already well versed with the history of the force.' PTI Photo by Shashank Parade
The news of his suicide shocked all of Mumbai police, as the officer was a very prominent face in the city and state police forces. He had been out of action for the past two years due to his cancer treatment. Senior police officials, including Commissioner of Police D D Padsalgikar, GRP commissioner Niket Kaushik who'd worked with Roy in the Mumbai crime branch and in the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad, IGP Rajvardhan Sinha, among others, visited his family at the Bombay hospital.
In picture: Police personnel stand guard outside the hospital. Pic/ Bipin Kokate
A story about Himanshu Roy goes like when Lieutenant General Jagjit Singh Aurora, general officer commanding-in-chief of the Eastern Command during the third war with Pakistan in 1971, who conducted Himanshu Roy's viva in 1987. Aurora had a reputation of intimidating young officers. When he asked Himanshu Roy, 'Do you know who I am?' Himanshu Roy was quick to answer, 'Sir, you commanded the largest force after the Second World War.' It was a fact, and nobody else knew that. An impressed Lt Gen Aurora didn't ask him any further questions. Pic/ Bipin Kokate
Former Mumbai commissioner of police MN Singh said the police force lost a capable and daring officer. Roy's body was handed over to his family and kept at their home, after which it was brought to the Chandanwadi crematorium at night. The funeral took place around 10.20 pm, with top bureaucrats and police officers in attendance. Roy was cremated with state honours. Pic/ Bipin Kokate
Maharashtra IPS officer Himanshu Roy was cremated with full state honours. His flower bedecked body draped in the national Tricolor was taken in an ambulance from his Nariman Point home to the Chandanwadi Crematorium at Charni Road around 9.30 p.m. A large number of police personnel, former and serving IPS and IAS officers, besides political leaders, including Union Minister Ramdas Athawale, were present for Roy's final journey. Pic/ Bipin Kokate
C.V. Rao and Devendra Fadnavis, besides other ministers, condoled the demise of Himanshu Roy and recalled his services to the police force in glowing terms. Former Chief Minister of Maharashtra Ashok Chavan, senior Nationalist Congress Party leader Jayant Patil and many other political leaders also expressed grief over Roy's tragic demise. Besides, scores of IPS and IAS officers, lawyers and other officials grieved Roy's sudden death. Pic/Atul Kamble
Within a short span of time, Roy became a force to be reckoned with. Not only was he the most respected in the Mumbai Police, he also transformed the physical culture in the force. The officer, who was noted for his muscular body, his regular workouts at the gym and maintaining good balanced health, was detected with cancer, which had left him depressed. In picture: A poster used in the gym he visited.
A 'Mumbai boy', Roy studied in the prestigious St. Xaviers College and became a Chartered Accountant. He cleared the UPSC exams to become an Indian Police Service (IPS) officer of the 1988 batch. During his preparations for the UPSC exams in Mumbai, he met his future wife Bhawna, who subsequently became an IAS officer but quit the civil services to devote herself to social work through NGOs in Maharashtra
The highlight of Himanshu Roy's career was when, at the age of 28, he became deputy commissioner of police, Zone 1. Deepak Rao, in an interview with mid-day said, 'Life had come full circle for Roy, because Colaba - the place he had grown up in - was now under his jurisdiction.' In picture: Roy taking charge of Mumbai Crime Branch, as its newly appointed chief, in 2010. Pic/Getty Images
As former Joint Police Commissioner (Crime) and chief of Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS), Himanshu Roy was credited with directing the investigations into several sensational crimes. These included the murder of journalist J. Dey. Besides, he directed the probe into the IPL match-fixing and betting scams of 2013 in which several top cricketers and Bollywood actor Vindu Dara Singh were among the accused. He was instrumental in solving the brutal murder of lawyer Pallavi Puryakayastha -- daughter of an IAS couple at the Centre -- at her Mumbai home in August 2012. Pic/AFP
In 2012, Himanshu Roy was among the officers handpicked by then Home Minister R.R. Patil to oversee the shifting from Mumbai to Pune of Pakistani terrorist Ajmal Kasab, found guilty in the Mumbai terror attack. Again that year, he cracked the sensational killing of missing Bollywood starlet Laila Khan, who was murdered with five family members at an isolated countryhouse (farmhouse) in Nashik
In Picture: Himanshu Roy with Akshay Kumar at an event in Mumbai
A cadre of the 1988 batch and an alumnus of St Xavier's College, Roy served in various crucial posts, including SP Nashik (rural), SP Ahmednagar, DCP Economic Offences Wing, DCP Traffic, DCP zone I, and Nashik police commissioner, where he tackled the Khairlanji massacre case.
In Pictures: The Indian Police Commissioner of Mumbai, Satyapal Singh (L), speaks as Joint Commissioner of Police (crime) Himanshu Roy watches during a news conference in Mumbai on August on August 26, 2013 to brief the press about a breakthrough in the Shakti Mills rape case. Pic/AFP
Himanshu Roy was posted as joint commissioner of police, Mumbai, ATS Maharashtra chief, additional director general of police (ADGP) of Maharashtra (planning and co-ordination), and ADGP (establishment), Maharashtra. Owing to the sensitive cases Roy handled during his stint as ATS chief, he and then commissioner Rakesh Maria became the first police officers to get Z+ security cover. Roy had recently been given the cover.
In picture: File photo dated May 11, 2015, shows former joint commissioner of police (Crime), Himanshu Roy at a press conference in Mumbai. Pic/AFP
Known for his physique Himanshu Roy was a fitness buff and has been known to spend close to three hours in the gym. His treating doctor, Dr. Nagarkar believe that it was 'Weakness and depression must have broken him from within. I don't think he did because he was suffering from cancer.'
In picture: A picture taken in 2007 shows the fitness freak that Himanshu Roy was
Widely known among his colleagues as the 'hulk' with a 'strong voice' to match, the 1963-born Himanshu Roy was considered one of the most upright police officers, having vast knowledge of the crime scenario in the city. Posted as an additional director general of police (establishment), he served Mumbai and Maharashtra in various important posts.
In picture: File photo dated May 11, 2015, shows former joint commissioner of police (Crime), Himanshu Roy at a press conference in Mumbai. Pic./AFP
Himanshu Roy oversaw the investigation into the August 2013 gang-rape of a woman photo-journalist inside the desolate Shakti Mills Compound in central Mumbai which culminated in death sentence for three of the accused.
In picture: Joint Commissioner of Police Himanshu Roy (3R) along with other policemen exit the Shakti Mills compound, the scene of a brutal gang rape of a female photojournalist, in Mumbai on August 28, 2013. PIC/AFP