Encounter specialist Daya Nayak transferred to Nagpur

Police sub-inspector and ‘encounter specialist' Daya Nayak (in pic), who was reinstated in the Mumbai Police force in June 2012, has been transferred to Nagpur, following pending inquiries against him. "We have transferred him [Nayak] to Nagpur after an order was invoked against him," said a senior IPS officer, on condition of anonymity.

Daya Nayak

A 1995-batch police officer, Nayak was under suspension for nearly six-and-a-half years. He had been suspended from service in January 2006 after the Maharashtra Anti-Corruption Bureau arrested him in a disproportionate assets case based on a complaint by former journalist Ketan Tirodkar. The ACB had also arrested his two friends, who lent their names to the transfer of his wealth.

In 2009, however, the then director-general of police SS Virk had denied permission to prosecute Nayak in the case with a remark that there were insufficient grounds and cleared him of all charges. In 2010, the Supreme Court quashed all the charges against him under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA).

He was reinstated a year-and-a-half ago and posted in a local arms wing of the department. After a brief stint here, he was transferred to the west region (Bandra to Andheri), considered a high-profile zone in the city. Nayak is known to have killed more than 80 gangsters in encounters, including Vinod Matkar, Rafik Dabba, Sadik Kalia and three Lashkar-e-Taiba operatives.