Kin to appeal aquittal in HC
Even as the special court acquitted encounter specialist Pradeep Sharma of all charges in the Lakhan Bhaiya alleged fake encounter case on Friday, the victim’s brother and advocate Ramprasad Gupta said that they plan to move the Bombay high court against the verdict.
“I am disappointed with the verdict and will move the Bombay high court,” said advocate Gupta.
As per the prosecution, on November 11, 2006, a police team had picked up Lakhan from Vashi on suspicion that he was a Chhota Rajan gang member, along with one Anil Bheda.
Lakhan was then killed in an alleged fake encounter on November 11, 2006 in suburban Versova in western Mumbai.
It was also alleged that Bheda was initally detained at DN Nagar police station in Versova and later shifted to Kolhapur. He was subsequently brought back to Mumbai and detained for about a month.
On November 15 the same year, Mr Gupta moved the Bombay high court alleging that the encounter was “fake” and that it a was a case of “brutal murder”.
In February 2008, the Bombay high court ordered a magisterial inquiry into the alleged fake encounter. In August 2009, the magistrate submitted a report, which stated that Lakhan had been murdered in cold blood. The Bombay HC later formed a Special Investigation Team (SIT) that arrested Sharma and 13 other policemen.
Sharma, the key accused in the case, was arrested by the SIT on January 8, 2010, along with 21 others, who were subsequently lodged at Thane Central Jail.
Mysteriously, the sole eyewitness in the case, Bheda, went missing from his house in Navi Mumbai on March 13. He had to depose in court on March 18. His wife moved the HC with a habeas corpus (produce the person) petition and alleged that her husband was abducted and could have been murdered.
Later, in June 2011, the Navi Mumbai police found a decomposed body and DNA tests confirmed that it was Bheda.
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