An IPS officer in Odisha is rubbing the Maoists the way it hurts the most and reliving the Bollywood blockbuster Singham in remote areas of the state.
Meet 45-year-old Himanshu Kumar Lal, a DIG rank officer of Odisha cadre who has made history by hoisting the tricolour this year on August 15 in the den of the infamous Maoist leader RK.
It is for the first time in the history of India's Independence that the day was celebrated in the Swabhiman area of Balimela town, a Maoist-infested district of Malkangiri in Odisha.
Around 150 villages in the area have remained under the shadow of Maoists for more than six decades. For locals, this officer has turned out to be a ray of hope. Posted as DIG (South Western Range), Himanshu Lal is barely a few months old in this posting but has already made a difference.
Even before being posted as DIG Northern Range, Sambhalpur, he has played the silver screen Singham in real life.
On this he said, "Every day is a new day and every posting comes with a new challenge to serve the people better. There is nothing more satisfactory to bring smiles on faces or improve the life of a person with my effort which will continue with refreshed energy and dedication every day."
Lal is a 2003 batch officer of Odisha cadre and is a qualified MBA and a sharpshooter too. After quitting a comfortable corporate job in 1998 with a plum salary, he is now nothing less than a terror in the Maoist-affected region for his encounters since he was the Superintendent of Malkangiri district in the peak of Naxalism in the year 2005 to 2006.
He is a recipient of the President's Police Medal for Gallantry for the anti-Naxal operations in Malkangiri. He also received the Jeev Raksha Medal from the Indian Red Cross Society.
Besides several accolades, Himanshu has been decorated with gallantry awards and police medals for the same. Interestingly, he has played a crucial role in the investigations of 2G spectrum allocation case, coal block allocation scam, AugustaWestland case, and NRHM scam.
He was also part of the investigations into the Saradha chit fund scam and Rose Valley chit fund scam.
He has even unearthed property up to the tune of Rs 10,000 crore under several money laundering cases, including hawala operations.
It was his advance training in Louisiana, USA on 'crisis response' by the Anti-Terrorist Response for Police and workshops in Vietnam on anti-money laundering steps that gave him an additional sharpness in policing skills.