Senior police inspector Daya Nayak, once known as an `encounter specialist’, was on Tuesday (July 29, 2025) promoted to the rank of Assistant Commissioner of Police, an official said.

Senior inspectors Jivan Kharat, Deepak Dalvi and Pandurang Pawar too were promoted as ACP by the order of the Maharashtra home department, he said.

Mr. Nayak, who joined Mumbai Police in 1995 and is currently posted at the Bandra unit of the crime branch, rose to fame in the 1990s as one of the police officers who gunned down a number of gangsters in ‘encounters’. A film was also made on him.

In 2006, the anti-corruption bureau registered a disproportionate assets case against him, but he was later given a clean chit.

Mr. Nayak also served in the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) and was part of the team which solved the case of the Ambani residence security scare and subsequent murder of Thane businessman Mansukh Hiren in 2021.