The Bombay High Court today asked the Maharashtra government if it was going to file an appeal against the acquittal of 'encounter specialist' Pradeep Sharma in the 2006 Ramnarayan Gupta fake encounter case.
The division bench of Justices P V Hardas and Revati Mohite-Dere was hearing an appeal filed by advocate Ramprasad Gupta, Ramnarayan alias Lakhan Bhaiyya's brother, challenging Sharma's acquittal by the lower court.
The High Court today sought a reply from the government within two weeks. The sessions court last month acquitted Sharma noting that there was no direct or circumstantial evidence against him.
Advocate Gupta, in his appeal, has said that there is enough evidence against the police officer.
While Sharma was acquitted, the sessions court convicted 21 persons including 13 policemen and sentenced them to life imprisonment on the charge of murder.
On November 11, 2006, a police team picked up Ramnarayan, an alleged aid of gangster Chhota Rajan, from Vashi in Navi Mumbai, and shot him dead in suburban Versova in western Mumbai the same evening. Police then claimed that he died in an encounter.
But his brother, advocate Ramprasad Gupta, moved the High Court alleging that police had murdered his brother. High Court first ordered a magisterial inquiry which concluded that it was a "cold-blooded murder; then the court constituted a Special Investigation Team to probe the case.
According to SIT, Ramnarayan was killed at the instance of Navi Mumbai-based builder Janardhan Bange alias Janya Sheth, who had approached Sharma to have Ramnarayan killed.
