Two days before retirement, Daya Nayak promoted to ACP

Nayak, who joined the police force in 1995, gained recognition for gunning down several gangsters in encounters.

MUMBAI: Senior police inspector Daya Nayak, who gained recognition as an “encounter specialist” in the 1990s, was promoted to assistant commissioner of police on Tuesday, two days before his retirement. Nayak, who heads Unit 9 of the Mumbai crime branch, is scheduled to retire on July 31.

Two days before retirement, Daya Nayak promoted to ACP

Along with Nayak, senior inspectors Jeevan Kharat, Deepak Dalvi, and Pandurang Pawar, who are also set to retire on Thursday, were promoted too.

Nayak, who joined the force in 1995 as an officer at the Juhu police station, gained recognition for gunning down several gangsters in police encounters. He has shot around 87 gangsters, including criminals linked to the likes of Dawood Ibrahim, Arun Gawli, Amar Naik and Chhota Rajan. His career has inspired Bollywood films such as Ab Tak Chhappan and Department.

In 2006, Nayak was suspended after the Anti-Corruption Bureau arrested him following allegations by former journalist Ketan Tirodkar that he owned assets disproportionate to his known source of income. He was reinstated in the police force in 2012, after the Supreme Court quashed all the charges against him.

Nayak was more recently involved in investigating high-profile cases such as the firing outside actor Salman Khan’s house, the killing of Nationalist Congress Party leader Baba Siddique, and the attack on actor Saif Ali Khan. He was also part of the team that solved the Antilia bomb scare case and the subsequent murder of businessman Mansukh Hiren in 2021.