JOIN USSenior IPS officer Himanshu Roy, who had led the elite Crime Branch of the Mumbai Police and the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) of the Maharashtra Police, committed suicide on Friday.
Roy, a 1988-batch IPS officer, shot himself with his service revolver at his residence in Nariman Point.
At the time of death, Roy was an Additional Director General of Police-rank officer and was heading the Establishment Wing of the Maharashtra Police.
Roy was rushed to the Bombay Hospital where he was pronounced dead on admission. His body has been taken to the GT Hospital for postmortem.
Roy was suffering from bone cancer and had been on leave for the last one year.
A fitness freak, Roy was known as "bodybuilder" with some even comparing him with Hollywood star Arnold Schwarzenegger.
During private conversations, he would speak of fitness, his regime, diet and supplements.
Roy was one of the officers who was assigned by the then home minister the late R R Patil to oversee the shifting of 26/11 death row convict Mohammed Ajmal Kasab from the Arthur Road jail in Mumbai to Yerawada jail in Pune - ahead of his hanging.
During his career as a police officer, Roy had handled several sensitive and high-profile cases, including the spot-fixing scandal where Chennai Super Kings team principal Gurunath Meiyappan, the son-in-law of former BCCI chief N Srinivasan, and Vindoo Dara Singh, the son of legendary wrestler-turned-actor late Dara Singh, were among the accused.
As chief of the Crime Branch, Roy oversaw the investigations into the murder of journalist-cum-writer J Dey. He also arrested the accused behind the murder of lawyer Pallavi Purkayastha, the daughter of an IAS-couple.
One of the most sensitive cases that Roy handled was the murder of Bollywood actor Laila Khan and five members of her family at their farmhouse in Igatpuri.
Roy also arrested Vijay Palande who was involved in four murders - TV producer Karan Kakkad and Arunkumar Tikku, father of actor Anuj Tikku, the double murder of airport union leader Anup Das and his father.
A "Bombay boy", Roy was an alumnus of St Xavier College and was a chartered accountant by qualification, which gave him an edge in solving economic offences.
He also handled the investigations of 2012 riots at Azad Maidan and the Shakti Mill gang-rape case involving a journalist.
"It is a big loss to the police. He had eight to 10 years left and would have reached the top," said former Mumbai Police chief M N Singh.