Former police officer Pradeep Sharma has been handed a life sentence by the Bombay High Court for his involvement in the staged encounter of Ramnarayan Gupta, an alleged associate of gangster Chhota Rajan, back in 2006. Justices Revati Mohite Dere and Gauri Godse, presiding over the division bench, overturned the sessions court’s 2013 ruling that had acquitted Sharma, deeming it “perverse” and “unsustainable.”
The bench highlighted the overwhelming evidence against Sharma, emphasizing the coherence of evidence pointing to his complicity in the crime. The court ordered Sharma to surrender before the appropriate sessions court within three weeks.
In addition to Sharma, the high court upheld the convictions and life sentences of 13 individuals, including policemen, while acquitting six others whose convictions had been overturned. A total of 22 individuals, including 13 police officers, had been implicated in the murder case.
Initially, the sessions court in 2013 had acquitted Sharma citing insufficient evidence, while convicting 21 other defendants and sentencing them to life imprisonment. Tragically, two of the accused passed away while in custody.
Appeals were filed in the high court challenging the convictions, with both the prosecution and the victim’s brother, Ramprasad Gupta, appealing against Sharma’s acquittal.
Special Public Prosecutor Rajiv Chavan argued that the case revealed a disturbing reality where law enforcement officials, entrusted with upholding the law, were themselves complicit in orchestrating a premeditated murder.
The prosecution contended that Sharma played a central role as the mastermind behind the abduction and subsequent killing of Gupta. The tragic incident occurred on November 11, 2006, when Gupta, also known as Lakkhan Bhaiya, was apprehended by a police team from Vashi on suspicion of ties to the Rajan gang. Later that same evening, Gupta was fatally shot in what was later revealed to be a staged encounter near Nana Nani Park in Versova.