E-Paper
Who is Daya Nayak? Mumbai's encounter specialist visits Saif Ali Khan’s Bandra home after attack
Saif Ali Khan stabbed: Daya Nayak and other top Mumbai Police officers visited Satguru Sharan apartments in Bandra on Thursday.
Bollywood star Saif Ali Khan was repeatedly stabbed at his Mumbai home early Thursday, sending shockwaves in Bollywood and his fans. Khan, 54, is out of danger following a surgery at Mumbai's Lilavati Hospital, his team said.
Khan's wife, Bollywood star Kareena Kapoor Khan, and their two children are safe.
Mumbai Police officers were seen at Saif Ali Khan's apartment complex in Bandra West. Among the officers who visited Satguru Sharan apartments was well-known encounter specialist Daya Nayak.
Daya Nayak is best known for gunning down more than 80 Mumbai underworld gangsters in the 1990s.
Daya Nayak's journey to Mumbai
Born in a Konkani-speaking family in Karnataka's Udupi, Daya Nayak is the youngest son of Badda and Radha Nayak.
After completing Class 7 from a Kannada-medium school in his village, Nayak travelled to Mumbai (then Bombay) in 1979 to find a job to help his family.
His first job in India's financial capital was at a hotel. He managed to complete Class 12 from a municipal school in Mumbai's Goregaon by staying and studying in the portico of the hotel where he worked.
Following this, he completed his graduation from CES College in Andheri.
His desire to be a police officer took root after college, when he met a few police officers from the narcotics department during the course of his job as a plumber's apprentice.
Finally, in 1995, he was appointed as police sub-inspector at Juhu police station after graduating from the police academy, 15 years after he left home for Mumbai. This was the time when Mumbai’s underworld was at its peak.
In December 1996, he killed two Chhota Rajan gangsters in Mumbai's Juhu after they allegedly opened fire on him. With this, Nayak's popularity rose within the police circles.
Controversies
The high-profile police officer is no stranger to controversies. He was under scrutiny for allegedly amassing wealth disproportionate to his income.
In 2004, a Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) court ordered the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) to investigate Nayak’s disproportional wealth. The ACB filed a case against Nayak and raided six places, including two in Bangalore. These raids revealed that Nayak allegedly owned two fleets of luxury buses – one in Mumbai, under a travel agency called Vishal Travels in Andheri, and another at Karnataka’s Karkala town.
Nayak was arrested by the ACB. He was reinstated in 2012 as additional commissioner of police (West) control room.
