Fake encounter: High Court awards life term to former cop 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 had proved beyond reasonable doubt the abduction, wrongful confinement and killing of Gupta in a fake encounter with “credible, cogent and legally admissible evidence”.