The Class of 96 lost its gentle giant on 15^th May 2023 with the passing of Deepak Ratan fondly known as Saboo to friends. He came to IIM-A from Bhopal with a clarity of eventual purpose that a very few possess. He wanted to be an IPS officer, a goal he achieved in his first attempt.

Always smiling with a legendary laid back attitude, and ready to help, Saboo was the life and soul of D17 and a darling of the entire batch. There is hardly anyone in the batch whose life was not touched by the warmth and friendliness of Deepak.

Deepak started his illustrious career in IPS as an ASP with the DGP Headquarters in Lucknow, followed by ASP Faizabad and had also served as the ADC to the UP Governor between 2000-2001.

Subsequently he served as SP Baghpat, Rae Bareli, Kheri, Ghaziabad district police chief, SSP Saharanpur, DIG Jhansi range, DIG ATS, IG EoW, IG Varanasi, IG Aligarh before moving to New Delhi on deputation with CRPF where he served till his untimely death.

Deepak also had a stint in Kosovo in 2006 as part of the UN peacekeeping mission and in Kashmir for a couple of years with CRPF. Deepak won many awards and accolades during his relatively short career including the President’s bravery medal and DG’s Commendation Discs Silver, Gold and Platinum. He is remembered as an extremely hardworking, fair and fearless officer by his ex-colleagues.

Deepak possessed almost encyclopedic knowledge of Hindi films and was a master at Antakshari where he could sing full lyrics of old hits.

He is survived by his wife Kamini Ratan Chauhan who is also a serving bureaucrat of the UP cadre and twins Kaju and Kishmish who have both graduated from the UK and are pursuing successful careers.

While our “Deepak” might have been extinguished, his glow and warmth will live on in our hearts and we will always cherish this “Ratan” of our batch.

—  PGP 96