Mumbai: Daya Nayak, 4 other city cops get transferred

Mumbai: Five police inspectors, including encounter specialist Daya Nayak, have been transferred out of the city before completion of their tenure.
Nayak, who has been transferred to Gondia, was attached to the anti-terrorism squad (ATS) and was part of the team probing the planting of explosives in an SUV near industrialist Mukesh Ambani’s residence and the subsequent murder of the vehicle owner.
In 2019, the government had held back his transfer out of the city, citing a threat to his life for gunning down more than 80 criminals in police encounters.
The others who have been transferred include inspector Sudhir Dalvi attached to Malad police station to Nanvij in Daund, crime branch inspectors Nandkumar Gopale to the police training centre at Jalna, inspector Sachin Kadam to Aurangabad and inspector Kedar Pawar to Jalgaon. All these officers have been associated with probes into sensitive cases in the past.
Police inspector Rajkumar Kothmire from Thane crime branch’s anti-extortion cell has been transferred to Gadchiroli. On Monday, cricket bookie Sonu Jalan had alleged former police commissioner Param Bir Singh, Sharma and Kothmire had arrested him in a false case and extorted Rs 3.4 crore in 2018.
Sources in the state police headquarters maintained they have been shifted on administrative grounds and denied it was due to their closeness to additional director general Deven Bharti who now heads State Security Corporation. All, except Nayak, were among the 12 officers who were not relieved when Bharti had asked them to be posted with ATS when Bharti was heading it. The officers who had worked under Bharti had applied for transfer to ATS but former police commissioner Sanjay Barve refused to relieve them as they had bypassed him and had applied for transfers directly to the then DGP Subodh Jaiswal.