The Free Press Journal

SC breather for ex-cop in encounter case

The former encounter specialist cop Pradeep Sharma got a breather from the apex court on Monday, in the matter of his surrenderi­ng to the court in the Lakkhan Bhaiyya fake encounter case.$ Admitting his appeal against his conviction on Monday, the Supreme Court issued notice to the Govemnment.

Sharma has challenged the verdict of the Bombay High Court convicting him and sentencing him to life imprisonme­nt for his role in the said encounter case. The apex court said on Monday that he need not surrender until further hearing, which would be scheduled after four weeks.

On Monday, Sharma’s lawyers – senior counsel Mukul Rohatgi, Subhash Jadhav and Siddharth Luthra – contended that the presence of the appellant at the place of occurrence was not$attested to$by any of the witnesses. But Sharma$entered the picture$since the empty shell and the bullet that killed the deceased, was attributed to his service revolver.

The prosecutio­n, however, contended that Sharma was heading a police team against which serious allegation­s were made and though the trial court had acquitted him, the high court had held him guilty. The prosecutio­n also pointed out the charges against Sharma –that he was convicted for the formation of an illegal squad, abduction, wrongful confinemen­t and the eventual killing. Therefore, the prosecutio­n said, bail for the appellant should not be lightly considered.

The division bench of Justice

Hrishikesh Roy and Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra, however, exempted Sharma from surrender to undergo the punishment awarded to him and issued notice to the prosecutio­n to respond on his bail plea within four weeks.

In his appeal filed through his lawyer, Sharma has pleaded that the high court has, ‘‘without any cogent material, drawn a misplaced inference to attribute one of the fired bullets to be that of the Appellant and being fired from the service revolver of the Appellant (Sharma)’’.

Besides, it said that the ‘‘High Court has proceeded with a biased mind as it has presumed sans any evidence that Anil Bheda (who was an eyewitness to the abduction and encounter of Sharma) was threatened by the family of the Appellant and the lawyers then appearing on his behalf during trial.’’ ‘‘Judgment of the High Court is mutually destructiv­e and contradict­ory as at one point the Hon’ble High Court has extensivel­y dealt with CDR and other secondary evidence to show that the Appellant was in DN Nagar area and was in regular touch with co-accused persons; however, at certain points, it has come to the conclusion that the Appellant herein was present with the raiding team. It cannot be fathomed that if the Appellant was part of the raiding team then where was the occasion for him to be in touch with the coaccused persons on phone calls at the time of the incident,’’ Sharma said in his appeal, claiming that findings of the high court were contradict­ory.

The Bombay High Court had, on March 19, held Sharma guilty of the fake encounter and sentenced him to life imprisonme­nt. It had asked Sharma to surrender within three weeks. On November 11, 2006, a police team picked up Ram Narayan Gupta alias Lakkhan Bhaiya, from neighbouri­ng Vashi on suspicion of his being a member of the Rajan gang, along with his friend Anil Bheda, and had killed Gupta in a ‘fake’ encounter near Nana Nani Park in Versova, that same evening. According to the prosecutio­n, Bheda was initially detained at D N Nagar police station in Versova, but was later shifted to Kolhapur. He was subsequent­ly brought back to Mumbai and detained for about a month.

Soon thereafter, Ram Narayan’s brother, advocate Ramprasad Gupta, moved the Bombay High Court, alleging that police had, in fact, murdered his brother. In February 2008, the high court ordered a magisteria­l inquiry, which had concluded that it was a cold-blooded murder.

In September 2009, HC constitute­d a special investigat­ion team to probe the case. Pradeep Sharma had been arrested by the SIT on January 8, 2010, along with 21 others, for involvemen­t in the fake encounter. According to investigat­ors, Gupta was killed at the instance of a Navi Mumbai-based builder, Janardhan Bange alias Janya Sheth, who had got in touch with Sharma to have Gupta killed. On March 12, 2011, Bheda, the sole eyewitness, went missing from his house in Navi Mumbai; he was supposed to depose in court on March 18.