Sharma’s conviction: Lakhan Bhaiya’s lawyer brother kept the legal battle on

“I continued to hope for justice. Maybe I could sustain the fight as I am a lawyer myself. I knew I was up against powerful people and was against a system as a whole but I did not lose hope,” Ramprasad said on Tuesday.

Lakhan Bhaiya was killed in a fake encounter on November 11, 2006 at Nana Nani Park Versova in Andheri. Ramprasad, who has been a practising lawyer since 1999, had shot off a telegram to various authorities immediately after his brother was picked up by the police along with his friend Anil Bheda, that they were abducted and there was a likelihood that his brother being killed in an encounter. After the death, the police filed a complaint against Lakhan Bhaiya, stating that he was killed after he attempted to attack the policemen. Ramprasad then approached the High Court seeking an inquiry, which led to the FIR against the policemen.

During the trial, which went on from 2011 to 2013, Ramprasad was the first witness in the case. One of the other prime witnesses, Bheda, was killed in 2011, before the trial could begin.

“There were many challenges in the case. At home or outside, there were only a handful of people who continually stood by me. Everybody was scared. Although I had conducted many cross-examinations as a lawyer, it is also a difficult experience being on the other side as a witness,” Ramprasad said.

On the acquittal of Sharma in 2013, Ramprasad said it was ‘disturbing’ but he knew he still had hope in the justice system. Ramprasad had also challenged a Government Resolution in 2015 which stayed the conviction of the policemen, ordering them to be released. “I had never heard of such a relief being granted to those convicted of murder before,” he said. The Supreme Court had rejected the state government’s plea then to stay their conviction. In an earlier interview, Ramprasad had said this made him think of not as a personal matter but one against a system favouring men in uniform, who had committed the crime.

Ramprasad had three siblings including his elder brother, Ramnarayan. The family, belonging to Uttar Pradesh, had made Mumbai their home, after their father came to the city and began working as a food vendor, although he died early of cancer.

Ramprasad had earlier said his brother was working with a goldsmith but in 1989 was arrested as he was with a friend who was carrying a firearm. He said that till 1997, the police picked him up in offences including robbery but the last case against him, he claimed, was in 1997 after which he worked in real estate.

The police had claimed that he was a member of the gang run by gangster Chhota Rajan.