Encounter specialist Sharma remanded to police custody

Mumbai police's controversial encounter specialist Pradeep Sharma was remanded on Thursday, to judicial custody till January 27 along with five others including two constables in an alleged fake encounter case involving an aide of gangster Chhota Rajan.

Last week, they were remanded to police custody on an application made by police. None of them applied for bail. Inspector Sharma, a 1984 batch officer, constables Ratnakar Kamble and Tanaji Desai, besides alleged informers Aquil alias Bobby, Hitesh Solanki and Shailendra Pandey were produced before a magistrate in suburban Andheri.

Sharma and other accused were arrested by Bombay High Court-appointed Special Investigating Team headed by Deputy Commissioner of Police M M Prasanna on January 8. The case relates to the killing of Ramnarayan Gupta alias Lakhan Bhaiyya, a close associate of gangster Chhota Rajan's aide D K Rao, on November 11, 2006 near Nana- Nani park in suburban Versova.

Lakhan's advocate brother Ram Prasad Gupta had filed a petition in the Bombay High Court alleging that the victim had been shot dead by a police team led by Sharma, who has 112 encounter killings of criminals including those belonging to the Chhota Rajan and Chhota Shakeel gangs to his credit.