LUCKNOW: Now-shamed and suspended Mumbai encounter specialist, Daya Nayak, appears to have been recruited along with two other "tainted" Mumbai Police sharp-shooters. He visited Lucknow on a secret mission to collect information about the serial blasts in Mumbai last week, police sources said. Though officials in Mumbai denied having any information, Special Task Force officers in Lucknow said Daya Nayak was in town. They said Nayak returned to Mumbai on Saturday, "satisfied" with his Lucknow visit. Two of Nayak's "encounter-specialist" colleagues, Pradeep Sharma and Vijay Salaskar, who shot into fame in the late 1990s with him but are still a part of the force, are also playing an active role in helping investigators into Terror Tuesday. Nayak, if Uttar Pradesh Police are to be believed, stayed at a hotel near Shahnajaf Imambara in Hazratganj and gathered information about those rounded up after the Varanasi blasts of March 7 this year. Two of these suspects belong to the Huji, Bangladesh-based terror offshoot of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), and the other two allegedly owe allegiance to the Jaish-e--Mohammad. The four are presently lodged in Lucknow district jail.
Nayak also met a few senior police and STF officials, two of whom vouched for his visit. But Maharashtra director-general of police P S Pasricha said he had no information about Nayak's Lucknow trip. "I know nothing about this but will ask about," he said.