Fake encounter: Bombay High Court hands life term to ex-cop and controversial encounter specialist Pradeep Sharma

Mumbai, March 19

The Bombay High Court on Tuesday convicted and sentenced former policeman and controversial encounter specialist, Pradeep Sharma, to life imprisonment, and upheld the conviction of 13 other accused in the 2006 fake encounter of Ramnarayan Gupta, an alleged close aide of gangster Chhota Rajan.

A division bench of Justices Revati Mohite Dere and Gauri Godse said the “prosecution has proved that Gupta was killed by the police, by trigger-happy cops, and the same was made to look like a genuine encounter”.

The high court upheld the conviction and life sentence imposed on 13 other accused in the case — 12 former policemen and a civilian.

The bench in its judgment said the “protectors/guardians of law cannot be permitted to act as criminals in uniform and if this is permitted then it would lead to anarchy”.

The court noted that the prosecution has proved beyond reasonable doubt the kidnapping, wrongful confinement and killing of Gupta in a fake encounter with “credible, cogent and legally admissible evidence”.

“We find that the prosecution has proved beyond reasonable doubt that Ramnarayan was killed brutally in cold blood by the accused when he was in their custody and that to cover up the same, they gave it the colour of a genuine encounter,” the high court said.

The bench quashed the 2013 judgment passed by a sessions court acquitting Sharma due to lack of evidence.

The high court deemed the lower court’s order as “perverse and unsustainable”, highlighting glaring irregularities in the previous judgment.

“The trial court had overlooked the overwhelming evidence available against Sharma. The common chain of evidence unerringly proves his involvement in the case,” the court said.

On November 11, 2006, a police team picked up Ramnarayan Gupta alias Lakkhan Bhaiya from the Vashi area in neighbouring Navi Mumbai, along with his friend Anil Bheda, and killed him in a staged encounter near Versova in western Mumbai the same evening.