Mr. Somay Vinayak Munde is currently the Superintendent of Police of Latur district (Head of the Police force in the district). He acquired his dual degree in Chemical Engineering from IIT Bombay.

Mr. Munde was the Probationary Assistant SP in Aurangabad (R) and then became the Assistant SP in Amravati. He then became the Additional SP Gadchiroli, I/C Naxal Ops, before becoming the SP of Latur.

Mr. Munde served in the communally sensitive Amravati district as Assistant SP and ensured an incidence-free 2019 general elections. Thereafter, he served as Additional SP, Naxal Operations, in the Naxal-affected Gadchiroli district, where he was the Head of Intelligence Gathering and Special Operations. He was instrumental in creating an intelligence and operations framework that yielded an unprecedented 54 kills, 68 arrests, and 73 surrenders of hardcore Naxals. He led a special operation in deep Naxal territory resulting in a firefight that led to the elimination of 27 hard core armed Naxalites including the neutralization of the dreaded Milind Sahyadri Teltumbade, who was head of the armed Naxal groups of three states – Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh. For this operation, he was awarded the Shaurya Chakra by the President of India on 09/05/23.

Mr. Munde was also awarded a Police medal for Gallantry on Republic Day 2024 for leading an operation in March 2023 in deep Naxal territory that led to the destruction of an arms manufacturing factory set up by Naxals. Additionally, he was awarded the Internal Security Medal and the Director General’s Insignia for his contribution to the internal security of the country. He also received the Satyendra Dubey Memorial Award given by IIT Kanpur in 2023.

Hobbies: “Reading, cycling, running.”