Himanshu Roy dead: Colleague says he worked hard on his first posting in Malegaon

Shocked with the death of IPS officer Himanshu Roy, Nagpur police commissioner K Venkatesham recounted Roy’s first assignment as a deputy superintendent of police in Malegaon in 1991.

Venkatesham was the additional SP of Malegaon, a post specially created for the textile town given its past history of riots. Although Roy was an officer of the 1988 batch, like Venkatesham, he joined the police force a year later along with the 1989 batch officers. “He was very good in public relations, hard-working and methodical,” Venkatesham told HT over the phone from Nagpur. “Roy joined the force at a time when the Babri Masjid issue was at its peak.”

Haleem Siddiqui, a journalist from Malegaon, said Roy was shrewd in investigations. “He used to read the face to nab the suspect,” Siddiqui said.

In 1997, Roy became the superintendent of police of Nashik district, under which Malegaon falls. He thwarted a communal riot by solving a murder case in 24 hours. “In 1997, five members of a family of a forest officer were murdered in Soygaon area. Roy solved the case in one day and arrested the brother of the slain forest officer,” Siddiqui said.