"It is painful, but I am a policeman and I am fighting it out." These were the words of IPS officer Himanshu Roy while in conversation with his former colleague, Arup Patnaik, three months ago.
"Roy came to work directly under me as the joint commissioner of police, crime, when I was Mumbai's police commissioner. He was very quick, sharp, and level-headed, very approachable by people and the force. His drafting was superlative. He was a meticulous and trained chartered accountant and had worked with a reputed firm before joining the IPS," Patnaik told DNA.
"I was in touch with him when he worked on journalist J Dey and advocate Pallavi Purkayastha's murder cases. While a common trend in Mumbai Police is for officers to gloat about their work and take credit, Roy refrained from it. After solving the J Dey case, Roy met me and asked me to make the announcement. I told him it is the crime branch's achievement and the credit goes to him and his team," recalled Patnaik.
Patnaik remembers that after his retirement, he had launched the Konark Cancer Foundation to help cancer patients, and later learnt that Roy had cancer. "I called him up and he told me he was detected with bone cancer. Six months ago, he came to meet me and looked a little pale, but was still in good spirit, jovial. He said he in a lot of pain, but since he is a policeman, he will fight it."
"Three months ago, Roy rang me up and informed that his condition has worsened and sought my help to get an appointment with a renowned city-based doctor. I am saddened by his demise. It is indeed very tragic."
