Mumbai: A Sessions Court here on Friday declare life imprisonment to 13 policemen and eight others, who were convicted in the 2006 fake encounter case of Lakhan Bhaiya, an alleged aide of underworld don Chhota Rajan.
Last Friday, Sessions Judge V.D. Jadhwar convicted three policemen who are Senior Inspector Pradeep Suryavanshi, Tanaji Desai and Dilip Palande for murder and others for aiding and abetting the encounter killing of Lakhan Bhaiya. Encounter specialist Pradeep Sharma, who has more than 100 encounters to his name, was the only accused acquitted of all the charges in the case.
The prosecution had sought death penalty for all the policemen and two others. They had argued that the all of them had played an active role in the killing. The defence, however, argued that the capital punishment should be avoided since the conviction of the accused was based on circumstantial evidence.
Lakhan Bhaiya’s brother and lawyer Ramprasad Gupta said, “We will be approaching the higher court against the acquittal of Mr. Sharma and also demanding death penalty to the policemen.”
The Bombay High Court ordered a magisterial inquiry into the death in 2008 after Ramprasad Gupta approached different authorities in the case. The report, submitted to the High Court in August 2009, stated that Lakhan Bhaiya was killed in cold blood from point-blank range. Following the report, the court appointed a Special Investigation Team (SIT), which subsequently arrested 22 people, including Sharma and another Senior Police Inspector Pradeep Suryavanshi. All the accused were lodged in the Thane Central jail since 2010.
Around 100 witnesses were examined in the case. Bheda was the only eye witness in the case but went missing from March 2011. Later his decomposed body was later found in Manor area of Thane district. Bheda’s death hampered the prosecution’s case and it had to depend on the deposition made by his wife.
Bureau Report
Leave a Reply