Daya Nayak gets a reprieve

'Encounter specialist' Daya Nayak, who has gunned down 83 gangsters in Mumbai and is now facing charges of being in cahoots with the same underworld he had once pledged to eliminate, on Monday got a reprieve.

In keeping with a judicial directive, Mumbai Police Commissioner A N Roy submitted a report to a special court observing that he found prima facie material for invoking the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act against journalist Ketan Tirodkar, builder R C Agarwal and Pakistan-based gangsters Fahim Machmach and Chhota Shakeel in the case of alleged nexus with the underworld.

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However, he chose to remain silent on the applicability of MCOCA on Sub-Inspector Daya Nayak and Mralini Patil, director of Hindi film Kaagar.

He neither accorded sanction to prosecute them under MCOCA nor did he reject the suggestion of its applicability on them.

Roy appointed another officer to conduct a probe into their alleged links with the underworld.

He further said in his report that he had ordered Assistant Commissioner of Police (Crime Branch) Dilip Sawant to obtain sanction to probe the role of Tirodkar, Agarwal, Machmach, Shakeel, Nayak and Patil before taking steps to prosecute them under MCOCA.

The designated judge, A P Bhangale, accepted the report and deferred the matter to June 30. Accordingly, Sawant will submit a report to the court on that day.

Hearing a private complaint filed by Tirodkar, Bhangale had earlier referred the case to the police chief to consider obtaining sanction from a competent authority under MCOCA to prosecute Nayak and others.

Tirodkar had filed a complaint alleging that Nayak had taken Rs 2 crore from Shakeel to bribe higher-ups to transfer police officers who were not favourable to the underworld.

Asking the court to grant him pardon, Tirodkar said he was part of the conspiracy and had accepted money along with Nayak from Shakeel's men.

He also alleged that Kaagar, based on Nayak's life, was made at the instance of Shakeel.

In December 2003 Nayak was transferred from the crime branch to Charkop police station in suburban Kandivali.