The Bombay High Court on Tuesday sentenced former Mumbai Police ‘encounter specialist’ Pradeep Sharma to life imprisonment for his involvement in the fake encounter killing of Ramnarayan Gupta, an alleged close aide of gangster Chhota Rajan, in 2006. This marks the first conviction of police officers in a fake encounter.
In the current case leading to his conviction, Sharma was arrested in 2010 by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) monitored by the Bombay High Court. In 2013, a sessions court found 13 policemen guilty in the Ramnarayan Gupta case, while Sharma was the only one acquitted.
The high court, in its judgment, said the police officers, who are protectors of the law, had grossly misused and abused their position by abducting and killing Gupta in a fake encounter, and by giving it the colour of a genuine encounter.
The bench stressed the need to sternly address deaths in police custody and condemned the officers’ misconduct.
“There can be no room for leniency as the persons involved, that is the police, are the arm of the State, whose duty is to protect the citizens and not to take law into their own hands and commit gruesome offences against them,” the court stated.
Sharma was convicted on all charges, including criminal conspiracy, murder, kidnapping, and wrongful confinement, receiving a life sentence. The bench ordered him to surrender before the concerned sessions court within three weeks.
According to a report in Hindustan Times, Pradeep Sharma is alleged to have killed at least 112 gangsters during his 25-year police career. He became notorious among gangsters during his time with the Mumbai Police.
Here are some key facts about him:
- Sharma belongs to the 1983 batch of police officers, alongside Vijay Salaskar, Praful Bhosle, Ravindra Angre, and Vinayak Saude. They were known for their efforts to tackle the Mumbai underworld, which included figures like Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar, Chhota Rajan, Arun Gawli, and Amar Naik.
- In 1999, Sharma and his team eliminated Vinod Matkar, an associate of Chhota Rajan, who had been chosen by the gangster to target Dawood Ibrahim in Pakistan. During the same year, Sharma was involved in the killing of D-Company gangster and Ibrahim’s close aide, Sadiq Kalia, in Mumbai’s Dadar area.
- In 2003, while leading the Andheri Crime Intelligence Unit (CIU), Sharma and his team neutralised three Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorists in Goregaon. Among them were Abu Sultan, LeT’s commander for southern India, and Abu Anwar Ali, both Pakistani nationals.
- Sharma faced controversy, being dismissed from service in August 2008 due to alleged links to the underworld. He was reinstated in May 2009 following a ruling by the Maharashtra Administrative Tribunal (MAT). However, the Maharashtra government contested this decision in the Bombay High Court.
- In 2010, Sharma was arrested for his alleged involvement in the fake encounter of Ramnarayan Gupta, alias Lakhan Bhaiya. in November 2006. Gupta was picked up from the Vashi area in neighbouring Navi Mumbai and killed in a staged encounter near Versova in western Mumbai. His close associate, Anil Bheda, was allegedly abducted and killed before he was scheduled to depose in court.
- In 2017, Sharma rejoined the police force and later served as ACP in Thane police under the then Commissioner Param Bir Singh. However, he resigned in July 2019 to join the undivided Shiv Sena and contested the assembly elections from Nalasopara in Mumbai, which he lost.
- In 2021, Sharma was arrested for the second time by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in connection with the Antilia explosives scare and Mansukh Hiran murder case. He is accused of involvement in the killing of businessman Mansukh Hiran related to the recovery of gelatin sticks outside the residence of industrialist Mukesh Ambani in 2021. Sharma was alleged to be involved in disposing of Hiran’s body.
(With inputs from PTI)