Former Maharashtra ATS chief Himanshu Roy commits suicide

Himanshu Roy, former chief of the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS), has committed suicide, as per reports.

Roy reportedly committed suicide using his service revolver at around 1:40 pm on Friday afternoon at his Mumbai residence and as per Mumbai police sources, he has been declared dead.

In his current capacity, Roy was the serving Additional Director General (ADG) of the Maharashtra Police. He had, however, gone on a long medical leave almost two years ago. Later reports said that he was suffering from bone cancer, something that PK Jain, former IG Maharashtra, confirmed while speaking to Republic TV.

An IPS officer of the 1988 batch, Roy gained fame for cracking a number of high-profile cases, including the IPL betting scandal, the firing on Dawood Ibrahim's brother Iqbal Kaskar's driver Arif Bael, journalist J Dey murder case, the double murder case involving Vijay Palande, Laila Khan murder case, and also, during his tenure at the Maharashtra ATS, an alleged plot by a software engineer Anees Ansari to blow up the American School at Mumbai's BKC.

Reports also credit him for setting up Mumbai's Cyber Crime cell and a special cell to deal with crimes against women. 

In 2014, Roy, along with then Mumbai Police Commissioner Rakesh Maria, became the first police officer to be given Z+ security cover. At that time, Roy was handling the interrogation of 13/7 blast suspect Yasin Bhatkal.

Update at 5:55 pm: Himanshu Roy left a suicide note stating that he committed suicide because of depression