Sentencing former encounter specialist Pradeep Sharma to life imprisonment in the 2006 Lakhan Bhaiya fake encounter case, the Bombay High Court on Tuesday said that Lakhan Bhaiya was killed by “trigger-happy cops”.
The high court overturned a sessions court order and sentenced Sharma to life imprisonment in the 2006 fake encounter of Ramnarayan Gupta alias Lakhan bhaiya, 33, an alleged close aide of gangster Chhota Rajan.
The 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, however, upheld that portion of the Sessions court order, which sentenced 13 others to life imprisonment. While 12 out of the 13 convicts are police personnel, one is a civilian.
On November 11, 2006, a police team picked up Ramnarayan Gupta from Vasai in Navi Mumbai, along with his friend Anil Bheda, and killed him in a staged encounter near Versova in western Mumbai the same evening.
The bench, in its 867-page judgement, said that the prosecution has proved beyond reasonable doubt the abduction, 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, given it a colour of a genuine encounter,” the bench said.
The bench in its judgement 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 bench quashed the 2013 judgement passed by a sessions court acquitting Sharma due to lack of evidence. The high court deemed the lower court’s order acquitting Sharma as “perverse and unsustainable”, highlighting glaring irregularities in the lower court’s judgement.
“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.
The high court in its judgement said the police officers, who are protectors of the law, have grossly misused and abused their position by abducting and killing Gupta in a fake encounter and by giving it the colour of a genuine encounter.
The bench stressed that death in police custody must be curbed with a heavy hand and must be viewed seriously.
“There can be no room for leniency as the persons involved, that is the police, are the arm of the State, whose duty is to protect the citizens and not to take law into their own hands and commit gruesome offences against them,” the bench said.
Sharma was convicted on all charges, including criminal conspiracy, murder, kidnapping and wrongful confinement, and sentenced to life and has been given three weeks’ time to surrender before the court. His legal team, in the meantime, said that they would be approaching the Apex Court.
Sharma is also accused in the case of the killing of businessman Mansukh Hiran related to the recovery of gelatin sticks outside the residence of industrialist Mukesh Ambani in 2021. He was granted bail by the Supreme Court in this case.
The convicted accused are former police personnel Nitin Sartape, Sandeep Sarkar, Tanaji Desai, Pradeep Suryavanshi, Ratnakar Kamble, Vinayak Shinde, Devidas Sapkal, Anant Patade, Dilip Palande, Pandurag Kokam, Ganesh Harpude, Prakash Kadam and Hitesh Solanki, who is a civilian.
The high court overturned the conviction and life sentence of six others, leading to their acquittal. Manoj Mohan Raj, Sunil Solanki, Mohammad Shaikh, Suresh Shetty, Akhil Khan and Shailendra Pandey, all civilians, have been acquitted.
Gupta’s associate Anil Bheda was released from custody in December 2006.
However, in July 2011, a few days before he was to depose in court, Bheda was allegedly abducted and killed. The state Criminal Investigation Department (CID) is currently probing the case.
On this, the court that till date no steps have been taken by the CID to conclude the investigation and trace the perpetrators.
“It is extremely unfortunate that a prime eyewitness in this case lost his life. It is a travesty of justice for the family. It is important for the police to investigate and to take the case to its logical end, lest people lose faith in the system,” the bench said.
Twenty-two individuals, comprising 13 police personnel, were initially charged in the case.
Following a trial, the sessions court in 2013 found 21 of the accused guilty, sentencing them to life imprisonment. Two of the convicted individuals died while in custody awaiting the hearing of their appeals.
Source Agencies
