Setback for Encounter Specialist Pradeep Sharma Bombay HC convicts him in 2006 ‘fake encounter’ case
Setback for Encounter Specialist Pradeep Sharma
Bombay HC convicts him in
2006 ‘fake encounter’ case
It may be a setback for encounter specialist Pradeep Sharma as the division bench of the Bombay High Court has sentenced him to life imprisonment for eliminating Ramnarayan Gupta aka Lakhan Bhaiyya, an alleged member of the Chhota Rajan gang, in a fake encounter at the Nana Nani Park in Versova in November 2006.
The division bench of justice Revati Mohite Dere and justice Gauri Godse reversed his acquittal, and upheld convictions and life terms handed down to 13 other accused in the case, including another ‘encounter specialist’ Pradeep Suryavanshi, for kidnapping the victim from Vashi in Navi Mumbai along with his friend Anil Bheda and bringing them to the city.
According to senior advocate Rajeev Chavan, who represented the prosecution, Lakhan Bhaiyya and Bheda were picked up by a Mumbai Police team from the latter’s house in Vashi and was killed on November 11, 2006 in Mumbai. The police claimed Lakhan Bhaiyya, who was 38 at the time, had cases of murder, extortion and attempted murder registered against him.
On July 12, 2013, the Mumbai sessions court had acquitted Sharma, the prime accused, and convicted some police personnel, including Suryavanshi, and a few ‘private’ individuals, sentencing them to life imprisonment.
While the court acquitted six other accused in the case, the case against two abated as they expired during pendency of the appeals before the high court.
Acting on a petition filed by the victim’s brother and advocate Ramprasad Gupta, the HC had in February 2008 ordered a magisterial enquiry into the killing. On August 11, 2008, a metropolitan magistrate submitted the report, concluding that the encounter was ‘fake’, and it was nothing but a cold-blooded murder.
On September 13, 2009, the high court constituted a Special Investigation Team and appointed IPS officer KMM Prasanna, the then deputy commissioner of police (Zone IX) to investigate the matter.
On April 3, 2010, the SIT filed a charge sheet against 22 accused, revealing that his former partner, real estate agent Janardhan Bhange, who had disputes with Lakhan Bhaiyya over some joint land transactions, had allegedly given a contract to Sharma and Suryavanshi to eliminate his rival, and the cop duo involved the other accused to carry out the encounter.
Bheda, a crucial witness in the case, went missing from Vashi on March 13, 2011, a few days prior to his scheduled testimony before the trial court. His decomposed body was later found in Manor area of Thane.
Apart from the two encounter specialists, the case involves assistant police inspectors Dilip Palande and Nitin Sartape, police sub-inspectors Arvind Sarvankar, Ganesh Harpude, Pandurang Kokam, four police constables, including Vinayak Shinde – an accused in the Antilia explosives scare and subsequent murder of Thane trader Mansukh Hiran – and 11 private individuals who worked for the two encounter specialists.
News Edit K.V.Raman
