Pradeep Sharma walks in encounter case

Maharashtra: Court convicts 21 people,state may appeal acquittal of the encounter cop

A sessions court Friday held 21 people guilty of killing 33-year-old Ramnarayan Gupta alias Lakhan Bhaiya in cold blood on November 11,2006,but acquitted prime accused Pradeep Sharma,a senior police inspector who led 112 encounters in Mumbai in the early 2000s.

The 21 include six police officers,seven constables and eight civilians. All have been found guilty of conspiracy,abduction,murder and destruction of evidence. This is the first conviction in an orchestrated encounter killing in the state.

Gupta was a Chhota Rajan aide who quit crime for real estate in 1995. He had a property dispute with real estate agent Janardhan Bhanage,who,the prosecution said,conspired with police to kill him

Guptas lawyer-brother Ramprasad Gupta said: It took me seven years to establish that my brother was killed in a fake encounter. But the main person behind the attack has been let off.

Special public prosecutor Vidya Kasle said she would suggest to the state to appeal Sharmas acquittal.

The prosecution will also argue for death penalty to the convicts. When these accused approached the Supreme Court for bail,it had made a serious observation that such cases of fake encounters attract only death penalty, Kasle said.

Gupta,the prosecution said, was picked up with friend Anil Bheda from Vashi on November 11,2006. They were taken to Andheri,where Gupta was killed. Bheda was allowed to go but picked up the next day and kept in illegal custody for nearly a month. He went missing three days before he was to depose before the court on March 16,2011. His remains were found after four months in a jungle at Manor in Thane district on July 20,2011.

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Following Bhedas death,his wife came narrated the incident in minute detail. The case had to be based on circumstantial evidence after Bhedas death, said Kasle.

Mumbai Police claimed it was a genuine encounter of a person involved in several criminal cases. An FIR was registered only after Ramprasad Gupta filed a writ on November 20,2006.

While an initial inquiry by the collector termed the killing genuine in February 2007,Bombay High Court judge RMS Khandeparkar ordered a judicial inquiry.