Pradeep Sharma Case: Police Officers Are Not Given License to Kill Criminals, says Bombay High Court

Mumbai: The Bombay High Court has made significant observations in the 2006 Lakhanbhaiya fake encounter case. Though 10 cases have been registered against Ramnarayan Gupta (Lakhan's actual name), neither the police nor anyone else has been given a license to kill. Instead of following the law, the police misused their position to kill Ramnarayan. It was the duty of all the accused policemen to protect the citizens. However, their actions were inconsistent with their duty, the court said in its order.

Police are not allowed to be uniformed criminals

Deaths in police custody must be curbed. We have to take it seriously and take strong steps. There is no place for them to show mercy as the government's weapons and protectors of citizens, law-abiding police are the accused. They are not allowed to take the law into their own hands and commit a heinous crime against civilians. 

Law enforcement cannot be allowed to perform their duties as uniformed criminals. The court observed that if such acts are allowed, there will be anarchy.

The performance of the state SIT is shameful

Anil Bheda, the only eyewitness witness to the incident, was brutally murdered before the charges were framed. His kidnapping and murder investigation has been with the state CID since 2011. When the prosecutor submitted the report of the investigation, we found that there was no progress in the investigation.  "It is a shame that more than a decade after the murder, the investigation has not been completed. Anil Bheda, the only eye witness in the incident, was killed before testifying in court. His killers are still at large.  This is a mockery of justice. The police, who must follow the law, have not bothered to find the killers of the sheep.
We hope that the CID will complete the investigation so that the police do not lose faith in the system," the court said.

What was the matter?

• On November 11, 2006, the police nabbed Ramnarayan Gupta alias Lakhanbhaiya and his friend Anil Bheda from Vashi and killed Lakhanbhaiya in a fake encounter in Versova. Anil Bheda was held captive for a month.
• Lakhanbhaiya's brother moved the high court seeking the setting up of an SIT to probe the murder case.
• The court accepted his submissions and formed an SIT and after a thorough investigation, Sharma and other policemen revealed that Lakhanbhaiya had been killed in a fake encounter and registered a case against him.
• In 2013, a sessions court convicted 21 of the 22 accused and sentenced them to life imprisonment. Pradeep Sharma was acquitted. All of them moved the high court against the session court's decision. Lakhanbhaiya's brother and the state government challenged Sharma's acquittal in the high court.

 SIT Praised 

The SIT worked sincerely to bring to light the crime committed by the accused. The SIT did a remarkable job even though many witnesses were missing. SIT chief K M. M. Prasanna, Manoj Chalke, Vinay Ghorpade, and Sunil Gaonkar were part of the team.