Key witness in Lakhan bhaiya encounter may be dead

Prime witness in the Ramnarayan Gupta alias Lakhan bhaiya fake encounter case, Anil Bheda, may have died. The Navi Mumbai police, which has been trying to trace him for over two months, on Thursday informed the Bombay high court that it will collect the DNA samples of the missing person’s brother and sister and try to match it with the unidentified decomposed bodies lying in hospitals.

Gupta, an alleged Chhota Rajan aide, was killed on  November 11, 2006. A division bench of justice BH Marlapalle and justice UD Salvi has given the police two more weeks to find Bheda and produce him before the court. The police have formed special teams to trace Bheda. His wife Aruna had approached the high court with a habeas corpus petition stating that her husband has been missing since March 13 after he left his Vashi residence.

Bheda is the sole eyewitness in the fake encounter case in which several policemen, including encounter specialist Pradeep Sharma, have been arrested. Bheda was summoned by a sessions court to record his evidence against the accused on March 18.

Aruna, in her petition, has mentioned that her husband was received threat calls from Uttar Pradesh, Mumbai and Nashik. Aruna has alleged that her husband has been kidnapped by some unknown people, as there was a grave threat to his life because he often received calls by different people who either threatened him or tried to bribe him for not deposing against the accused in the case.

Earlier, the petitioner’s counsel Mihir Desai had argued:  “The witness is of prime importance in the case against the accused, who are policemen, and we suspect that he might have been kidnapped.”