Bombay High Court overturns acquittal of former cop Pradeep Sharma in fake encounter case

The Bombay High Court today convicted former Mumbai cop Pradeep Sharma in a fake encounter case of 2006 and sentenced him to life imprisonment [Nitin Sartape v. State of Maharashtra & connected petitions].A division bench of Justices Revati Mohite Dere and Gauri V Godse set aside the order of the sessions court acquitting Sharma on the ground that apart from ballistic evidence, there was other evidence which was overlooked by the sessions judge.“All the evidence and circumstances have been ignored and clearly overlooked by the trial court. In the facts, we hold that the finding of acquittal recorded by the trial court, is clearly perverse and unsustainable, by ignoring or excluding relevant material, despite there being overwhelming evidence pointing to the complicity of Sharma in the crime, thereby warranting our interference,” the Court observed in its 867-page long order..The Court found the order of the sessions court to be perverse when compared against the evidence produced and hence, set aside the same.“We find that it is not possible to take any other view than the view taken by us, having regard to the overwhelming evidence adduced by the prosecution. The circumstances relied upon by the prosecution form a chain, which is so complete and which unerringly points to the guilt of Sharma and excludes any hypothesis consistent with his innocence," the Court ruled..The case arose from a fake encounter killing of Ramnarayan Gupta alias Lakhan Bhaiya, an alleged member of Chhota Rajan’s gang.Gupta and his friend were picked up on November 11, 2006 in a suburb area in Mumbai and Gupta was killed on the same day in a fake encounter.The case was registered in 2009 after a special investigation team found that a rival had paid police to kill Gupta. The SIT was formed on the basis of a High Court order directing registration of FIR..After a 5-year long trial, a sessions court in Mumbai acquitted Sharma in July 2013 but convicted 21 people including 13 police personnel. While three of the policemen were convicted of murder, the remaining 18 were convicted for abetment.The State government challenged the acquittal order before High Court claiming that the encounter had been staged. The police officers too filed appeals challenging their conviction.The High Court conducted regular hearings from July to November last year before reserving its judgment. It read through 17,000 pages of proceedings of the trial court which consisted nearly 57 volumes of documents.It eventually found merit in the submissions of the State government and convicted Sharma..It also upheld the convictions of 12 other police officers and a civilian, Hitesh Solanki.The convicted police officers are Dilip Palande, Nitin Sartape, Ganesh Harpude, Anand Patade, Prakash Kadam, Devidas Sakpal, Pandurang Kokam, Ratnakar Kamble, Sandeep Sardar, Tanaji Desai, Pradeep Suryavanshi and Vinayak Shinde..Senior advocate Aabad Ponda with advocates Subhash Jadhav, Chandansingh Shekhawat and Dilip Rawat appeared for Sharma.Special public prosecutor Rajiv Chavan with additional public prosecutors JP Yagnik, PP Shinde and advocates Gopal Parab, Priyanka B. Chavan, Bhairavi Waradekar and Priya Mehra appeared for State.Sharma was in the news in a couple of years ago after he was arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in connection with the Antilia bomb threat and connected case of murder of businessman Mansukh Hiren in 2021.He was granted bail by the Supreme Court in that case in August 2023.[Read Judgment]