Lakhan Bhaiya case: HC pulls up cops

The Bombay High Court on Friday directed the police to explain what led to the escape of a convict in the 'fake encounter' case of alleged gangster Ramnarayan Gupta. The court also rapped the police for not taking measures to trace the convict so far.

A division bench of Justice Ranjit More and Justice Anuja Prabhudessai directed Vinayak Deshmukh, Deputy Commissioner of Police (zone X), who was present in court, to ascertain the responsibility of the people behind the escape of Shailandra Pandey. The bench observed, "It appears that police officials are hand in glove with Pandey."

The convict was sentenced to life imprisonment but was granted parole for a month on November 2, 2013. Pandey, however, got the parole extended by a few days on the pretext of an "urgent need" to get admitted to a hospital for eye treatment. However, he escaped from the hospital.

The Andheri police registered an FIR on February 21, 2014, after the jail authorities informed it that Pandey had jumped parole, but failed to do anything else. On July 12, 2013, the session's court had acquitted encounter specialist Pradeep Sharma observing that there is no direct or circumstantial evidence to show his involvement in the case.