Daya Nayak, an encounter specialist in the Mumbai Police, has not fired a single shot from his revolver in the last 21 years. He last used it in 2004 to kill an alleged gangster in Malad. The revolver, which he proudly keeps at his desk in the Mumbai Crime Branch office at Bandra, has made him famous as an "encounter specialist officer".
Mr Nayak, along with his mentor, has killed around 80 alleged gangsters and terrorists. Over the years, he became an urban legend with national and international media featuring him, and several movies being made about his life. He is the last of the lot, which had famous names like Pradeep Sharma, Vijay Salaskar, Praful Bhosle, and Ravindra Angre. I have been acquainted with Nayak as a cub reporter since 1999 and witnessed ups and downs in his life. A sub-chapter in my book "Bombay After Ayodhya" delves into his life.
The cover of 'Bombay After Ayodhya: A City in Flux', published by HarperCollins India
Daya Nayak was promoted to the rank of Assistant Commissioner of Police today. He is retiring on July 31.
Here is an excerpt:
... and then Daya Nayak couldn't hold his tears.
Tall, well-built and with a moustache, Daya Nayak emerged as an encounter specialist in the late 1990s, and his personality became an antithesis of his name, which stands for 'mercy' in Hindi. He, whose name had become synonymous with fear after having killed several gangsters, was now in a state of shambles. My camera recorded him weeping, but my mind could not accept that visual.
A daredevil cop, a blue-eyed boy of all his superiors, and an ever-so-prompt officer, Daya Nayak never hesitated to pose for my camera at the encounter spots, flashing his Kalashnikov.
Men cry, policemen cry. And anyone who believes they can't or shouldn't fail to see the human in them.
Daya Nayak was charged with a case of disproportionate assets. The honour that he had earned over the years seemed to fade as the fear of an impending arrest held him. He hailed from a village in coastal Karnataka and moved to Bombay with his relatives to pursue a college education while also making ends meet with petty jobs.
After clearing the Maharashtra Public Services Exam, he was recruited as a Sub-Inspector of Bombay Police in 1995. While being posted at the Juhu police station, Nayak came across Inspector Pradeep Sharma, who was impressed with the former's ability in crime detection. Soon, Sharma inducted him into his squad, and the duo conducted several encounters together.
Nayak's fame spread like fire, and the duo became the blue-eyed boys of many senior officers. He was the only Sub-Inspector rank officer who was privileged with a separate cabin like senior officers, much to the envy of a few peers.
Nayak's trouble escalated in early 2006, with a Marathi newspaper report on the opening of a high-tech school by Nayak at his native village, Yennehole. Named after his mother, Radha Nayak, the school's inauguration ceremony was attended by celebrities like Amitabh Bachchan, Sunil Shetty and Aftab Shivdasani.
Daya had allegedly spent crores on this project. The news raised many eyebrows as everyone was left perplexed to see a Sub-Inspector being able to afford such a lavish investment. It was speculated that he misused his position as a police officer and extorted money from businessmen to set up the school.
Soon, a case of amassing assets disproportionate to the known source of income was registered against him by the Anti-Corruption Bureau. Nayak went into hiding and applied for an anticipatory bail. As the bail application got rejected and his imprisonment appeared imminent, Daya gave me an interview at an undisclosed location before finally surrendering.
A miserable and tormented Daya alleged that his former colleagues had conspired against him out of jealousy, "I am a victim of infighting within the force," he said. His wife and two other friends were also booked in the case. He was imprisoned for two months and was granted bail when the Anti-Corruption Bureau failed to file the chargesheet against him within the stipulated time period of 60 days.
Later investigations could not gather any substantive evidence against Nayak, and he was eventually discharged.
On the streets, gangsters bayed for each other's blood, but simultaneously, a parallel gang war also ensued among the people who were supposed to eliminate them.
Since a few of my fellow crime reporters and I often interacted with these cops, the picture seemed clearer to us than to many others.
Pradeep Sharma and Daya Nayak together had killed over 80 alleged gangsters and were portrayed as heroes. The gangsters dreaded their names. While the duo inspired many Bollywood films at the start of the twenty-first century, like many Bollywood scripts, their friendship was affected by the arrival of new characters on the scene. As more officers joined Sharma's squad, disagreements and misunderstandings broke out between the inseparable Sharma and Nayak. Rumours fanned over who the actual officers were and on whom the films were being made.
It was conceded that Nayak's fame was overshadowing his superior and that he should be cut down to size. After getting relief in the disproportionate asset case, Daya Nayak was reinstated in the police force.
(This is an excerpt from Jitendra Dixit's 2022 book Bombay After Ayodhya: A City in Flux, published by HarperCollins India. Only subheadings and paragraph breaks have been added by NDTV for readers' ease. These are the personal views of the author.)
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