The Mumbai Encounter Squad, as it’s unofficially known, rose to prominence in the 1980s and 1990s — a direct upshot of the emergence of Dawood Ibrahim and his D-company. Urban cowboys of the police department like Daya Nayak, Pradeep Sharma, Praful Bhosale, Raju Pillai, Vijay Salaskar etc became cult figures. Another such name is Ravindra Angre, who executed notorious Thane gangster Suresh Manchekar in 2003 apart from more than 50 others.

But now, 55-year-old Angre has seemingly lost his nerve. Police sources say after the director general of police’s office transferred the daredevil cop to the Naxal-infested Gadchiroli district five months ago, Angre went on leave for an unspecified period of time, citing ill health.