Daya Nayak is a retired Indian Police officer of the Mumbai Police. He joined the department in 1995, and rose to fame as an encounter specialist in the late 1990s, as a member of the Detection Unit. He retired on 31st July 2025.

Early life

Daya Nayak was born at Yennehole village of the Karkala taluk, Udupi district in a Konkani-speaking family. He studied till the 7th standard in a Kannada - medium school built by his grandfather. In 1979, he came to Mumbai, after his father asked him to earn some money to help the family. He worked at a hotel canteen, sleeping on the hotel's porch. He continued his education while working, and graduated 8 years later from the CES college in D. N. Nagar. After graduating, he started working with a plumber as a supervisor, earning a monthly salary of 3,000. He continued staying at the hotel until he got a police job. He was an encounter specialist.

Police career

Daya Nayak joined the Mumbai Police (then known as the Bombay Police) as a trainee with the rank of Sub-Inspector in 1995. After completing his training, he was posted to the Juhu police station in 1996. His first encounter killing occurred on the night of 31 December, where he opened fire upon two gangsters working for Chhota Rajan. Subsequently, he was shifted to the special squad working against the gangsters. Nayak disapproved of being termed an "encounter specialist", insisting he is not a trigger-happy man but was instead forced to kill gangsters to prevent more "bloodshed and mayhem".

School in Yennehole

Daya Nayak built a school in his native village Yennehole. The money for building the school was collected through donations from Bollywood personalities in name of the Radha Nayak Educational Trust (named after Nayak's mother). The school was inaugurated by Amitabh Bachchan in 2000 in presence of celebrities like M. F. Husain, Suniel Shetty and Aftab Shivdasani. It was later handed over to the Government of Karnataka, and is now known as the Radha Nayak Government High School.

Corruption allegations

In 2003, Ketan Tirodkar, a journalist, accused Daya Nayak of having links with the Mumbai underworld, and of amassing wealth disproportionate to his income through illegal means. Tirodkar alleged that he had become friends with Nayak in 2002, and ran an extortion business with him.

Nayak was investigated by the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) court for links with the underworld. He came out clean in investigations conducted by ACP Shankar Kamble in 2003 and by DCP K L Bishnoy in 2004.

In 2006, Nayak was arrested during an investigation led by ACP Bhim Rao Ghadge of the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB). ACB officials raided his house on 21 January 2006. Nayak was accused of floating bogus companies with help of his associate Rajendra Padte, and getting his wife Komal to take out property loans.

The ACB summoned them 27 times, but could not find any evidence. He was arrested at the insistence of IPS officer Pradnya Saravade. He was jailed for 26 days,

Nayak insisted that all his money was accounted for, and every transaction was made by cheque. He also pointed out that his assets had been shown as inflated. For example, his Tata Sumo was a government vehicle and the 200,000 rupee expense reimbursed by the government for a post-encounter hospital stay had been counted as an asset. The ACB alleged that Nayak had transferred 1 billion to a foreign contact from a cyber café in Goa. It claimed that he was in Goa on 18 January 2006, but his duty records proved that he was at the Charkop Police station. ACB also brought up the point that a person called D Naik had travelled several times between Mumbai and Goa by air. It was later found out that the person was the Goa minister Damodar Naik.

After reinstatement

On 16 June 2012, the Maharashtra Police reinstated Nayak. He was posted in the Local Arms unit. However, he did not report there, and was suspended in July 2015. The transfer order was cancelled in August 2015, and Nayak was reinstated in Mumbai Police on 11 January 2016.

Nayak was promoted as a Sr. Inspector in January 2024.

On 29 July, 2025 he was promoted to Assistant Commissioner of the Police. Two days after promotion, Nayak retired after 30 years of service.

The Hindi films Ab Tak Chhappan by Shimit Amin and N Chandra's Kagaar are based on Nayak's personal experiences, as is the Kannada film Encounter Daya Nayak. Ab Tak Chhappan was later remade into Telugu as Siddham. The 2007 film Risk by Vishram Sawant has overtones from Daya Nayak's life. - A Telugu film, titled Golimaar released in 2010 is also inspired by his life. The 2012 Bollywood film Department highlights the encounter specialists of the Mumbai Police; Daya Nayak's role is played by Sanjay Dutt. A sequel to Ab Tak Chhappan was released in February 2015 titled Ab Tak Chhappan 2.

Another Telugu film titled Temper, was released in 2015 and the protagonist's name was also titled after him.

See also

  • D-Company

References