Himanshu Roy was cured of cancer, says doctor treating him; suicide may not have been connected to disease

Himanshu Roy’s suicide may not be connected to the cancer he was diagnosed with. Nashik-based doctor Raj Nagarkar, the oncologist who was treating Roy, said no cancerous traces were found in his body on 30 April, the last time the police officer underwent a PET examination. Speaking to Mid-Day, Nargarkar said Roy was cured of the disease. “It would be wrong to say Roy committed suicide because of cancer. He was cured of the disease. It is a loss to the police force and to us, as we all worked very closely and were even satisfied with the results,” he said. [caption id=“attachment_4466721” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Himanshu Roy. PTI[/caption] The scan was conducted on Roy on 30 April, 11 days before he shot himself with his service revolver at his residence in Mumbai. When Roy learnt the results of the test, he was “very pleased” and even asked when could he resume duty, Nagarkar recalled. According to Nagarkar, “the medicines had done wonders and all the soft tissues and cancer were almost missing from the scan”. “We told him we are reducing his medication and will keep eye on his development,” he added. In a separate interview that Nagarkar gave to The Hindu, the doctor said it wasn’t so much the disease itself but the emotional trauma it had on him that may have led to Roy taking the extreme step. “With positive progress like his, it would be a mistake to say that he killed himself because of the illness. More than the physical problems, it was his state of mind that probably took over,” he was quoted as saying by The Hindu. The report said that the HCG Manavata Cancer Centre in Nashik, of which Nagarkar is the medical director, has another branch called Centre for Difficult Cancers (CDC), which is where Roy was undergoing treatment. “I had spoken to him three weeks ago about an open forum for cancer patients, and he had immediately agreed to be a speaker at this forum. He has been regularly exercising as well. He was at the gym on Thursday too,” Nagarkar added. Roy, the former Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) chief, shot himself in the mouth on Friday afternoon. He was rushed to Bombay Hospital, where he was declared dead. The 1988-batch IPS officer had served as additional director general of police (establishment). He who was the joint commissioner of police (crime) from 2012-2014 and is credited with leading the investigation into the Indian Premier League (IPL) betting scandal. He was then transferred to the state ATS. During his tenure as the agency’s chief, software engineer Anees Ansari was arrested for allegedly planning to blow up a school at the Bandra Kurla complex. With inputs from PTI