MUMBAI: The Bombay high court on Tuesday reversed the acquittal of former encounter specialist Pradeep Rameshwar Sharma and sentenced him to life imprisonment for eliminating Ramnarayan Gupta aka Lakhan Bhaiyya, an alleged member of the Chhota Rajan gang, in a fake encounter at Nana Nani Park in Versova in November 2006. The court also upheld the conviction of 12 other policemen and one private individual but acquitted six others.
“In the facts and circumstances, we hold that the finding of acquittal recorded by the trial court despite there being overwhelming evidence pointing to the complicity of OA1 (Sharma) in the crime was clearly perverse and unsustainable,” the division bench of justices Revati Mohite Dere and Gauri Godse said while striking down the trial court order acquitting the 63-year-old former cop. The bench held Sharma guilty of conspiracy to kidnap and murder the victim and ordered him to surrender before the sessions court within three weeks to serve his prison term.
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The sessions court had, on July 12, 2013, acquitted Sharma, but convicted 13 other police personnel including Pradeep Suryavanshi, another encounter specialist, and eight private individuals; all of them were sentenced to life imprisonment.
In its 876-page order, the high court bench said the trial court had relied on the ballistic report to convict Suryawanshi and assistant inspector Dilip Panlande, yet refused to use the evidence against Sharma. Though the report had indicated that one of the three bullets retrieved from the victim’s body was fired from Sharma’s service revolver, it was discarded by the trial court as former cop had questioned the credentials of the ballistic expert.
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The bench also noted the presence of other overwhelming evidence such as call detail records showing an unusually high number of calls between Sharma, the leader of the “squad”, and other policemen convicted in the case.
While overturning Sharma’s acquittal, the bench upheld the conviction of 12 other police personnel sentenced to life imprisonment by the trial court. They included police inspector Pradeep Suryawanshi, assistant inspectors Nitin Gorakhnath Sartape and Dilip Sitaram Palande, sub-inspectors Ganesh Ankush Harpude and Anand Balaji Patade, and constables Pandurang Ganpat Kokam, Sandip Hemraj Sardar, Tanaji Bhausaheb Desai, Ratnakar Gautam Kamble, Vinayak Babasaheb Shinde, Devidas Gangaram Hari Sakpal and Prakash Ganpat Kadam, and Hitesh Shantilal Solanki; all of them were involved in kidnapping the victim from Vashi and killing him in a fake encounter.
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“The circumstances on record, when taken together on their face value, clearly indicate the meeting of minds between the conspirators for the intended object of committing an illegal act (to kill Lakhan Bhaiyya),” the bench said while upholding their convictions.
The bench also set aside convictions of six private individuals – Shailendra Pandey, Akhil Shirin Khan, Manoj Mohan Raj, Sunil Ramesh Solanki, Mohamad Shaikh and Suresh Manjunath Shetty, setting them free.
The cases against assistant police inspector Arvind Arjun Sarvankar and real estate agent Janardan Tukaram Bhanage, who gave the contract to eliminate his former partner to Sharma and Suryawanshi, died during pendency of appeals.
Embed: Probe into Anil Bheda murder a “travesty of justice”
The high court expressed immense displeasure over the fact that Anil Bheda, a crucial witness in the Lakhan Bhaiyya fake encounter case, went missing from Vashi on March 13, 2011, a few days prior to his scheduled testimony before the trial court; later, his decomposed body was found in the Manor area of Thane district. Though a case was registered in connection with Bheda’s alleged murder, the court pulled up the state CID, which is investigating the matter, for not making any progress.
“It is a matter of shame that more than a decade has lapsed, but there is no progress in the case. It is extremely unfortunate that a prime eyewitness in this case, Anil Bheda, lost his life before his evidence could be recorded and to date, the perpetrators have not been booked and are obviously looming large,” said the bench.
“It is travesty of justice for the family. The police, whose duty it is to uphold the law and to find the perpetrators of the crime, have hardly taken any pains to trace them. 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 added.
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