SC stays ex-cop Pradeep Sharma's surrender in fake encounter case

In a relief to former Mumbai police officer Pradeep Sharma, the Supreme Court on Monday said he need not surrender till further orders to undergo the life term awarded to him in a 2006 fake encounter case.

The apex court sought a response from the Maharashtra government on his bail plea in the case.

While admitting Sharma's appeal against the March 19 Bombay high court verdict, a bench of Justices Hrishikesh Roy and Prashant Kumar Mishra said it was issuing notice on the bail plea.

"It is a case of reversal of acquittal by the high court, where the appeal is filed by the appellant. The statutory appeal is admitted for hearing. Issue notice on bail plea. The high court has directed him for surrender in three weeks. Till the next date of hearing, he need not surrender," the bench ordered.

Sharma has challenged the Bombay High Court which sentenced him to life imprisonment in the 2006 fake encounter of Ramnarayan Gupta, an alleged close aide of gangster Chhota Rajan.

Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi and advocate Subhash Jadhav appearing for Sharma submitted that the incident happened nearly 20 years ago and their client was not at the crime scene. Only his revolver was used, they said.

The high court had upheld the conviction and life sentence imposed on 13 other accused, 12 former policemen and a civilian, in the case.

It quashed the 2013 judgment passed by a sessions court acquitting Sharma due to the lack of evidence and termed it "perverse and unsustainable".

On November 11, 2006, a police team picked up Ramnarayan Gupta alias Lakkhan Bhaiya from the Vashi area in Navi Mumbai, along with his friend Anil Bheda, and killed him in a staged encounter near Versova in western Mumbai the same evening.