Mid-Day
- Nayak says ACB sleuths were keener on arresting him instead of investigating the disproportionate asset case against him
Mumbai, May 18: Encounter specialist Dayanand Nayak says the mafia was desperate to muzzle his gun. “The easiest way they could achieve this was to frame me and get me arrested. They knew my suspension would follow and this would keep me from working as a policeman,” he says.
Unconfirmed reports now suggest that a former Director General (DG) of ACB had authorized Nayak’s arrest three years ago because he believed the encounter specialist was threatening a reputed Chembur builder – allegedly the senior police officer’s secret business partner.
In 2002, the Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) received an email, requesting officials to investigate Nayak’s assets. Earlier, the inauguration of a school in Nayak’s village Yennhole near Udipi in the same year, had raised rumours that he had collected around Rs 1 crore as donations from Bollywood for the school.
Nayak’s first setback was a transfer from the Criminal Investigation Unit (CIU) in Andheri (east) to Kandivli police station in mid-2002. More than 500 persons who had donated sums towards Nayak’s school in Udipi were questioned.
Finally, Additional Commissioner of Police Udhav Kamble and former Joint Commissioner (crime) Bhujangrao Mohite gave him a clean chit and Nayak was transferred back to the CIU.
A few months later, a former journalist filed a private petition in the MCOCA court, alleging Nayak had links with the underworld. Around the same time Nayak also parted ways with his former mentor Police Inspector Pradeep Sharma, another encounter specialist.
Assistant Commissioner of Police Dilip Sawant, of the Economic Offences Wing, who investigated the case found nothing incriminating against Nayak after a crime branch team searched Nayak’s police quarters and questioned over 600 witnesses.
In the weeks that followed, Nayak was shunted out of the crime branch for the second time to the Charkop police station.
On December 3, 2004, Nayak was summoned by the ACB and on the basis of a secret letter, charged of possessing disproportionate assets worth Rs 41,75,130.
All but Rs 6 lac of the alleged amount was found to be in his wife’s name. Nayak later produced a certificate, as proof that he was rewarded with Rs 7 lac by a senior police officer from his secret fund allotted officially for paying informers.
This detail, Nayak says, was not taken into account by the investigating officer B R Ghatge. Incidentally, Ghatge is now being investigated by the ACB for possessing disproportionate assets.
Nayak says that since his bank accounts were sealed, there was no question of tampering with documents.
“It is clear from the sequence of events that the ACB sleuths were hell bent on arresting me. That is what they wanted to do instead of investigating the disproportionate asset case against me,” says Nayak
Recent headline:
Read daijiworld exclusive interview & watch video: