'Encounter cop' Daya Nayak back in Maharashtra Police

Mumbai: Police sub-inspector and 'encounter specialist' Daya Nayak has been reinstated in the state police department, almost a year after he was suspended.

Nayak, who is known to have killed over 80 gangsters in encounters, was suspended in June 2015 for not joining duty and being on sick leave for a very long time. At that time his posting was in Nagpur area.

A 1995-batch police officer, Nayak was under suspension for nearly six-and-a-half years after the Anti-Corruption Bureau arrested him in 2006 following complaints by former journalist Ketan Tirodkar that he owned assets disproportionate to his known sources of income.

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 in 2012 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-Toiba operatives.