COLLUSION: Encounter specialist Pradeep Sharma has been implicated in the murder and the owner of the vehicle parked outside the residence of Mukesh Ambani.
By Adv. Vinayak D. Porob
The most disturbing development is that the police are colluding with the Mafia. The most recent instance is one of the special encounter specialist Pradeep Sharma, shooter of the National Investigation Agency, being implicated in the parking of a vehicle with explosives outside the mansion of Mukesh Ambani. But this is not an isolated case and even in the past goons and police have collaborated with each other. The belief is that the Shiv Sena promoted gangster Chota Rajan to counter Dawood Ibrahim.
India is famous with its history of mafia gangs comprising of sharp shooters who were lethal and barbarous and in the 70’s and 80’s the underworld mafia was as its peak when the workers of the textile mills suddenly lost their jobs when the mills were turned into malls. The mill workers and their families who were living in chawls became helpless and some died, some became disillusioned while others simply lost their minds and committed suicide. The reason for the rise of the underworld mafia was mostly due to scarcity of money and limited opportunities as boys who grew up at that time had the underworld as the only source of name and fame. The rise of underworld dons and mafia gangs invited the onset of police encounters and creation of mafia in uniform known as the encounter specialists. During the 80’s and 90’s several fake encounters were choreographed and staged mostly for money and supremacy as the encounter specialists were pawns in the hands of politicians and political parties. Every illegal business was carried out by managing the police who in turn to allow the illegal trade monthly extorted a particular sum through their agents. Ultimately the fake encounters were mostly staged in order to symbolize the supremacy of the mafia in uniform over the underworld mafia as the subjects of extortion of the underworld and the mafia in uniform were the same. Extortion for money was a cause of several high profile murders, similarly was also a cause for high profile fake encounters by the encounter specialists. Harassment by the men in uniform was one of the main reasons for some ordinary youth to be catapult into a criminal. Once an ordinary youth now a criminal was willing to kill or get killed because of the extreme hatred and madness he developed by the circumstances faced by him. The list of sharp shooters is endless in the history of the underworld mafia, similarly though limited the history of the fake encounter specialist is also rich. Several high profile businessman, industrialist, politicians, union leaders were brutally murdered by the underworld dons which in turn gave a cause for the mafia in uniform to stage their fake encounters. Now it appears that there is an end of the encounter elite, however an encounter specialist who killed more than 70 dreaded gangsters in his career of 25 years was sadly killed by a terrorist. Injurious caused to him initially though were not fatal and he could have survived if had got timely medical aid. However inspite of screaming for help no one responded for his call for help due to the fear of the terrorists, though belatedly was rushed to hospital, despite best efforts succumbed. The man who had cold heartedly killed seventy people including two of the most deadliest mafia dons died himself a pitiful death which goes to show that you reap what you sow. Another so called encounter specialist who staged several such fake encounters was once arrested in a case of extortion and attempt to usurp property and was imprisoned for fourteen months, however was acquitted later on. This same encounter specialist who portrayed to be very courageous when was thrown into a cell of hardened criminals so unsettled him that by his own admission the psychological stress of living in constant fear of getting killed by the other inmates of the cell who nursed a deep grudge against him deprived him from mental peace and sleep, such is the law of nature that a person who staged fake encounters and cold heartedly killed several people could not sleep in peace when he anticipated threat to his life, which shows that the courage shown to stage fake encounters was the power of the uniform he wore and not of the person wearing it. History speaks of another such fake encounter specialist who before being arrested had staged around 111 encounters, however was not lucky enough and was ultimately arrested in a fake encounter case in the year 2010 and languished in custody for almost three years before being acquitted for lack of evidence.
bomb threat case
The man in uniform have always been in the news for abusing their powers and authority till recently another case of a police officer being arrested for his alleged role in a high profile businessman’s residence bomb threat case is making rounds of all the newspapers in India. The same police officer now an accused and who when in uniform was very brutal and aggressive, has now after being incarcerated felt the need to seek leave from the court for his lawyer to remain present at the time of his interrogation. It is pity that the man who himself interrogated several accused in the absence of their lawyers now after being arrested realized the importance of the presence of a lawyer during interrogation. The man in uniform most of the times cannot be trusted as they may be up to any trick to satisfy their lust for money and therefore there is a saying in hindi “police se na dosti aachi na dushmani”. The same officer allegedly took assistance of another cop out on parole and a bookie for the alleged murder of the owner whose vehicle was used to plant explosives near the high profile businessman’s residence. This same police officer and the cop on parole were in a team lead by a high profile fake encounter specialist who was a veteran of 111 encounters and who faced a three year long trial after being arrested. The investigating agencies suspect more involvement of policeman due to digital trail and digital footprints left by the already arrested suspects. The owner of the vehicle was intentionally thrown in a creek in order to mislead and portray that the owner must have committed suicide as the diatom report has prima facie indicated that the owner of the vehicle was alive when he was thrown in the creek. However on the onset of the low tide when the body was discovered, his anti-covid mask was intact on the face and several handkerchiefs were found stuffed into his mouth which clearly raised a suspicion that it was not a suicide as it is extremely unlikely that a person committing suicide would wear a mask to save himself from Covid-19. According to the investigators handkerchiefs were stuffed into the mouth to prevent water from entering his body and thus delaying it from surfacing.
In the midst of the investigation of this high profile case of murder by police officers, another case of corruption involving a home minister of a state cropped up on the basis of the allegations leveled by a police chief of that state. The lure for money is leading the politicians and police officers in this country towards corruption and extortion and as such most of the police officers by establishing cordial ties with politicians manage to get favourable postings thereby conniving to loot the citizens. High profile police officers in this country are parallelly running businesses in the names of their relatives, friends and spouses out of the wealth amassed through corruption and extortion. The bomb scare case was an outcome of the lust for money by the men in uniform as they were hoping to get into a private security firm being launched by a corporate.
In the State of Goa also all illegal activities are being carried out by managing the police who even do not spare the beggars begging on the roads. No illegal activity would have been committed if the men in uniform were honest and as most of the men in uniform have no integrity, the law abiding citizens are sold to rocks. In the state of Goa itself higher rank police officers in the name of their family members, friends and relatives have established businesses worth crores of capital out of the proceeds earned through corruption and extortion. The clash between the men in uniform and a criminal is usually not because of the offence committed by the criminal but is only to purge the terror created by the criminal as the men in uniform very well know that a terrorizing criminal can deprive them their regular haftas. A terrorizing criminal can extort by very well denying the men in uniform their share of extortion and hence to eliminate such criminals, fake encounters are staged and/or these criminals are falsely implicated. To sum up ultimately it is the money which is a motivating factor for the cops as well as criminals to be criminally aggressive and therefore in my personal opinion I don’t find much difference between the two more so as the fact remains that in India till date we have seen very few police officers being dismissed or punished for their misdemeanor.
(This is the personal opinion of the writer who is an Advocate practicing at Mapusa – Goa.)