Former encounter specialist was charged with abduction, conspiracy and murder.
Pradeep Sharma was the main conspirator in the Lakhan Bhaiya murder case, according to the prosecution. On Friday, the sessions court pronounced the former encounter specialist “not guilty” of the charges against him.
The judgment on Ramnarayan Gupta alias Lakhan Bhaiya murder case pronounced all the 13 policemen guilty named in the charge sheet. But, gave Sharma a clean chit.
According to the prosecution, the report submitted by the magistrate of the Andheri metropolitan magistrate court to the Bombay high court in August 2008 claimed that Lakhan Bhaiya was not killed in an encounter but it was a custodial death. Hence, Sharma was arrested in 2010.
The court, while framing charges against the accused, had slapped Sharma with charges of abduction, conspiracy, wrongful confinement, murder and destruction of evidence. However while pronouncing the verdict on Friday, the court said Sharma is “not guilty” of the charges.
Special public prosecutor, advocate Vidya Kasle, said: “I don’t know whether to be happy or sad. I am happy that 21 people, including 13 policemen, are held guilty by the court. But, Pradeep Sharma has been acquitted. We had collected enough evidence against Sharma to prove his involvement in the cold-blooded murder.”
Kasle had asked for the ballistic reports from the Forensic Science Laboratory to match the bullets shot at Bhaiya. “I suppose the same ballistic report proved the charges against police officer Ratnakar Desai who had shot a bullet that hit Lakhan Bhaiya. But, then how can the same report not show evidence against Sharma?” he said.
According to Kasle, another evidence was that Sharma was using his alleged henchman Hitesh Solanki’s mobile phone. All senior police officers used to get calls from the same number.
“The call data records which we have procured show that there was a call from the same phone to the additional commissioner of police. However, even those evidence are not supporting the prosecutions claims. We are yet to go through the judgment copy,” Kasle added.
Advocate Ramprasad Gupta, brother of Lakhan Bhaiya and the complainant in the case, was also surprised by the not-guilty verdict against Sharma.
“I am happy that my efforts were fruitful. However, I am shocked by the verdict which gave Sharma a clean chit. We will appeal against the court’s order of not pronouncing Sharma guilty,” he said.
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