Sacked cop, others charge-sheeted in fake gunfight case

MUMBAI - Mumbai Police inspector and “encounter (gunfight) specialist” Pradeep Sharma, who has been sacked, and another police officer, Pradeep Suryavanshi, were among over 20 people charge-sheeted Saturday by a special team probing the death of a gangster in a gun battle.

The charge-sheet, running into over 1,000 pages, was filed in the Andheri court by an official of the Bombay High Court-appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT) which is probing the death of Ramnarayan Gupta, suspected aide of absconding mafia don Chhota Rajan.

Sharma was dismissed from service a couple of years ago while Suryavanshi, the former head of MIDC police station, five policemen and three others have been charge-sheeted. All are at present under arrest.

Another 11 people, including nine policemen, are on the run and are yet to be traced.

Gupta alias Lakhan Bhaiyya was killed in a gun battle by a police team headed by the then Inspector Sharma at Versova, Nov 11, 2006.

Besides Sharma, police constables Ratnakar Kamble, Tanaji Desai, Vinayak Shinde and three others were indicted by the SIT headed by Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) K.M.M.Prasanna, in connection with the case in January this year.

The Bombay High Court August 2009 directed DCP Prasanna to file a complaint and head the probe in the case after Gupta’s advocate-brother Ramprasad Gupta had filed a petition claiming that his brother’s killing was “stage-managed”.

Besides Sharma and Suryavanshi, seven other policemen have been arrested in the case so far.