Daring, but with an exceptionally cool head made Ashok Kamte an excellent negotiator in crisis situations -- a quality for which he was summoned late Wednesday night to deal with terrorists holed up in Mumbai buildings.
Kamte, a 1989 batch IPS officer of Maharashtra cadre, who died fighting terrorists near Mumbai's Metro cinema, was one of the brightest of his batch, and one of the few officers who dared to take on challenges directly.
Having undergone special training for negotiating hostage situations, Kamte was chosen to tackle one of the worst crisis faced by the financial capital of the country.
The Mumbai Police specially summoned him to undertake the operation at Metro Cinema near Cama Hospital in the city where he laid down his life fighting terrorists along with encounter specialist Vijay Salaskar.
Deputy Commissioner of Police in Mumbai, Kamte was a key officer in the state police. He had also served as the Commissioner of Solapur where he became a hero among locals.
With over 400 fans on his Orkut profile, Kamte enjoyed a lot of respect during his tenure at Solapur.
"A cop that turned Solapur from a wrong city to the right one. The person who every responsible Solapurkar liked and loved. This community has been created to pay the respect and gratitude that he deserves," wrote one person on the social networking web site.
Survived by his wife and two children, Kamte had a panache for body building during his college days. His friends at the IPS academy also remember him as a great athlete and one of the brightest cadets of his batch.