The Bombay High Court upheld the life sentence given to 13 people, including 12 police officers, in the case of the 2006 fake encounter killing of Lakhan Bhaiya, who was allegedly the former aide of the infamous gangster Chhota Rajan. On Tuesday, the court sentenced former Mumbai Police encounter specialist Pradeep Sharma to life in prison. It was the first time cops were found guilty of a fictitious incident. Justice took too long.
Six civilians were found not guilty today, while 13 prisoners had their life sentences upheld by the HC. Once they were found guilty, the crimes against one civilian and a police officer were lessened. Justices Revati Mohite Dere and Gauri Godse scheduled the appeals to be heard on November 8, 2023. The earlier-exonerated Pradeep Sharma was told to turn himself in within three weeks. The creation of the police unit, false imprisonment, kidnapping, and fictitious encounters are just a few of the details that the prosecution has proven.
Though no one has been charged as of yet, the court lamented the “gruesome” death of the lone eyewitness, Anil Bheda, only days before his deposition in 2011. The court called it a “travesty of justice” and a “shame” that the key witness had passed away. It was hoped that Bheda’s attackers would face legal consequences. The only accused person whom the trial court did not find guilty was Pradeep Sharma. The High Court held that the trial judge had “overlooked” all relevant material, making the acquittal decision “perverse” and “unsustainable.” The court declared, “The circumstances point towards Pradeep Sharma’s guilt.”
The Actual Case
On November 11, 2006, Lakhan Bhaiya, a 33-year-old inhabitant of Vashi who went by Ramnarayan Gupta in real life and was purportedly a former criminal, was kidnapped and died in a fictitious police shooting in Versova. According to the Special Investigation Team (SIT), retired senior inspector Pradeep Sharma organised the meeting and planned to have Lakhan Bhaiya’s irate business partner slap him off. But in July 2013, Inspector Pradeep Suryawanshi, Constable Tanaji Desai, and Dilip Palande were found guilty of murder, while the principal accused, Pradeep Sharma, was found not guilty. The other eighteen defendants were found guilty of encouraging the interaction.
In the case, two witnesses for the defense and one hundred and ten for the prosecution were questioned. The ballistic report, which demonstrated that the bullet found in Lakhan Bhaiyya’s head was fired from Sharma’s gun, was not accepted by the trial court. Days before he was scheduled to testify in court in 2011, the only eyewitness, Anil Bheda—the guy who was kidnapped with the victim—vanished, dealing a severe blow to the prosecution during the trial. Two months later, his decomposing body was discovered.
Ramprasad Gupta, the brother of Lakhan Bhaiya, was instrumental in apprehending his brother’s accused perpetrators. His brother had been abducted before the encounter, and he had written telegrams to then-Commissioner of Police AN Roy about it. As a result, the HC instructed a SIT under the direction of then-DCP KM Prasanna to reopen the case in 2009. Gupta supported the prosecution in front of the trial court and the HC. He appealed both Sharma’s acquittal and the decision to spare the lives of the twelve police officers who were a part of the encounter squad. Alongside Special Public Prosecutor Rajiv Chavan, he argued the case.
“The Encounter case is not just one of abduction, confinement, and murder, but a grave case of officers belonging to the law enforcement agency who, as custodians of law and order with a moral responsibility of protecting the life of a citizen, ironically were involved in a stage-managed, cold-blooded murder. And while executing their deception, they schemed in creating and fabricating false records to substantiate their claim of a genuine encounter,” Chavan argued before the High Court.
Two of the twenty-one prisoners perished. One of the five prisoners freed on bond was one of them. Seven of the twelve police officers claimed they weren’t a part of the interaction squad in front of the HC. Senior Advocate Aabad Ponda represented Pradeep Sharma, while Advocates Sudeep Pasbola, Ashwin Thool, Sanjeev Kadam, Jagdish Shetty, Girish Kulkarni, and others represented the other defendants. The Maharashtra government halted the conviction of eleven police personnel on December 2, 2015. However, in 2019, the Bombay High Court invalidated the ruling.
Accused Ratnakar Kamble, Dilip Palande, Nitin Sartape, Ganesh Harpude, Anand Patade, Prakash Kadam, Devidas Sakpal, Pandurang Kokam, Sandeep Sardar, Tanaji Desai, Pradeep Suryavanshi, and Vinayak Shinde are the twelve police officials found guilty. Additionally, it upheld citizen Hitesh Solanki’s conviction. However, the court overturned the life sentences of other people, including Suresh Shetty, Shailendra Pandey, and Manoj Mohan Raj, also known as Mannu.
HC on Anil Bheda
“It is noteworthy that Anil Bheda, the primary witness to the kidnapping, was brutally kidnapped and killed on March 13, 2011, four days after the accusation was made. Only DNA testing could determine who he was after his burning discovery. The primary witness’s death was tragic, and no one has been charged as of yet. This is a mockery of justice.
It is the responsibility of the police to enforce the law. Hence, they must look into the matter and see it through to completion to prevent the public from losing faith in it.
In his 25 years as a police officer, Pradeep Sharma Sharma, a 1983 graduate of the Maharashtra Police, is said to have murdered 112 gangsters. Because of his alleged connections to the underworld and his initial dismissal in 2008 under a seldom-used Constitutional Act, he was accused of amassing nearly Rs 3,000 crore. Despite being exonerated of these charges in 2009 and having his position as an inspector restored, he was detained in January 2010 in relation to the murder of Lakhan Bhaiya and subsequently fired once more. Sharma was again detained in connection with the Mansukh Hiran murder case in 2021 and the Antilia bomb scare in 2013, following his acquittal. But the Supreme Court gave Sharma bail last year.
With a reputation for fake encounters and torturing innocent people, Sharma managed to escape the clutches of the law for a very long time. Finally, truth prevails. Pradeep Sharma has misused his office at every posting and has created terror in people’s minds and in the minds of his staff of being pulled into fake cases if they acted in a way he did not approve. The legal system in India may seem slow, but it is certainly sure. Apart from the case that has sentenced Pradeep Sharma, there will be many victims of his intimidation and force who have gotten justice today. This is a landmark lesson for all power-bearers in India to take the law and their power seriously.
