In one of the toughest actions against corrupt policemen in recent times, the state government on August 31 dismissed high-profile encounter specialist Pradeep Sharma from service for his links with the underworld. Inspector Sharma, once the blue-eyed boy of the city police and who has 112 encounter killings to his credit, was served a notice of dismissal at 1 am on August 31.
Police Commissioner Hasan Gafoor said, “Sharma’s dismissal was not prompted by any particular case. We had learnt that he had several undesirable contacts and was involved in underworld activities. The dismissal is an administrative action.’’
Although convinced about his underhand activities, the police knew that it would be difficult to prove them in court. Therefore, the government invoked Article 311 of the Indian Constitution whereby an officer can be dismissed without holding an inquiry in such situations. This is also one of the rare cases in which the deputy chief minister took an active interest in ensuring the dismissal of a police inspector. Sharma is the latest in a series of encounter specialists who have been neutralised. Sub-inspector Daya Nayak, Nitin Vichare, Ravindra Angre and Praful Bhosle are all facing various inquiries. The only exception is inspector Vijay Salaskar, who is posted with the crime branch.
Although he might have seen the action coming ever since he was sidelined following the custodial death of bomb blast accused Khwaja Yunus in 2003, Sharma was totally shaken when his family was informed about his dismissal. The dismissal proposal prepared by Gafoor was lying with DGP A N Roy for the past month.