'Encounter cop' Daya Nayak made ACP on retirement eve: Was suspended for 6 years, reinstated in 2023; credited with over 80 gangster kills

MUMBAI: "Encounter specialist" police inspector Daya Nayak was promoted to the rank of assistant commissioner of police (ACP) along with three other officers just a day before his retirement.A native of Udupi, Nayak began his career as a tea stall errand boy before joining the police in 1996. His career saw turbulence when the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) initiated an inquiry against him after he opened a school in his mother's name in Karnataka. He was arrested in a disproportionate assets case but was eventually acquitted after the agency failed to produce conclusive evidence. Nayak was reinstated in the police force last year after a suspension spanning six years.Nayak was credited with eliminating over 80 gangsters from the underworld as part of the "encounter squad" of the city. Among his targets were gangsters Vinod Matkar, Rafik Dabba, Sadik Kalia, and three Lashkar-e-Taiba operatives. Currently attached to the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS), Nayak played a role in cracking the case involving gelatin sticks planted outside industrialist Mukesh Ambani's Carmichael Road residence, which eventually led to the investigation into the murder of Scorpio car owner Mansukh Hiran.Along with Nayak, three other police inspectors, Jeevan Kharat, Deepak Dalvi and Pandurang Pawar from Jalgaon, were promoted to the rank of ACP.