Gupta case: Missing witness’ wife receives letter from him

The division bench of Justices P V Hardas and M N Gilani was hearing the Habeas Corpus petition filed by Aruna.

Over a month after the disappearance of Anil Bheda,the prime witness in the Ramnarayan Gupta fake encounter case,his wife’s lawyer told the Bombay High Court on monday that she had received a letter purportedly signed by her husband.

“Aruna Bheda received a letter on Friday,bearing her husband’s name in the end,stating that he had left the city on his own as the police are threatening and blackmailing him to give false testimony before the trial court,” senior counsel Vijay Pradhan said.

“The signature at the end of the letter is not identical to that of Anil Bheda’s. Aruna suspects that the letter has been written and sent by the person who has kidnapped Anil,” Pradhan,her lawyer,said.

The division bench of Justices P V Hardas and M N Gilani was hearing the Habeas Corpus petition filed by Aruna.

Anil,who has been missing since March 13 after he left his Navi Mumbai residence,is the sole eye witness in the fake encounter case in which several policemen including encounter specialist Pradeep Sharma have been arrested.

The police told the High Court that the letter has been sent from outside Maharashtra and that they were verifying its details. The court has directed the police to continue the probe and submit a progress report after summer vacations.

Ramnarayan Gupta,an alleged member of Chhota Rajan gang,was shot dead in an alleged encounter by the police in November 2006.

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But judicial inquiry later established that it was not a genuine encounter.

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