‘Encounter specialist’ Daya Nayak reinstated, to join Local Arms unit

Encounter specialist' and Mumbai Police police sub inspector Daya Nayak, who had been under suspension since January 2006 after a disproportionate assets case was filed against him, was on Saturday reinstated and posted in the Local Arms unit of the city police.

Senior officers said the reinstatement order was issued by Police Commissioner Arup Patnaik on Saturday, and he has been posted in the Local Arms unit.

In 2003, former journalist Ketan Tirodkar had submitted a private complaint in a special Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) court alleging that he, along with Nayak, had acted at the behest of the mafia.

While the police later filed a chargesheet against Tirodkar under MCOCA, Nayak was cleared for lack of evidence. In January 2006, the Anti Corruption Bureau raided Nayak's residence and booked him for disproportionate assets. After a non-bailable warrant was issued against him, Nayak surrendered and was taken into custody. He was immediately suspended from his post at Charkop police station. During a lengthy investigation by the ACB, the agency arrested Nayak's associate P Manivelan for allegedly laundering his money.

The ACB could not unearth any evidence to prove the charges against Nayak, and thus could not file a chargesheet. In October 2009, the then Maharashtra Director General of Police, SS Virk, had denied permission to prosecute Nayak in the case stating there was no sufficient grounds, and had cleared him of all charges.

In July 2010, the SC dismissed, for technical reasons, the private complaint which had triggered MCOCA proceedings against Nayak, ending a six-year-long judicial effort to prove the encounter specialist's links to organised crime syndicates.

The SC had observed that prior sanction had not been taken from the Mumbai Police chief before starting proceedings in the private complaint.

This sanction is a mandatory pre-condition under the MCOCA law, the bench said. The decision came after Nayak appealed to the apex court against a Bombay HC decision in August 2007, upholding the Special Court's finding that there was prima facie evidence to charge Nayak under the MCOCA.

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