Mumbai: NIA grills former encounter specialist Pradeep Sharma for 2nd time

Pradeeo Sharma at the NIA office on Wednesday. Pic/Suresh Karkera

Former encounter specialist Pradeep Sharma and mentor of suspended API Sachin Waze was questioned for the second consecutive day in connection with the Ambani bomb scare case and Mansukh Hiran's murder. The agency was not satisfied with the initial statement he gave on Wednesday.

Sharma, was grilled for more than seven hours on Wednesday after NIA managed to secure custody of Waze till April 9. Sharma reached NIA's Peddar Road office around 1.20 pm on Thursday and left around 9.15 pm after more than nine hours of questioning.

According to sources, Waze was very close to Sharma, from whom the agency wants clarity on certain circumstantial evidence. The NIA has found that from March 1 to 4, the period during which the conspiracy to kill Hiran was hatched, Waze met Sharma.

The SIM card through which Hiran was called via WhatsApp on March 4, was last active in Andheri, where Sharma lives.

"We have recorded his statement, he will be called again if we need further clarity in the ongoing probe," an NIA officer said. Vinayak Shinde, who was convicted in the Lakhan Bhayya fake encounter case, is another reason for Sharma being grilled. If sources are to be believed, Shinde continued to be close to Sharma after getting parole amid the pandemic and allegedly met him recently. Shinde and bookie Naresh Gor have been arrested in Hiran's murder and handed over to the NIA. The duo is now in judicial custody. According to sources, Sharma denied meeting Shinde. Sources have also confirmed that on March 2, Sharma visited the office of Mumbai's Commissioner of Police and is suspected to have met Waze and another senior officer there.

CBI records Param Bir, Waze's statement

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), conducting a preliminary enquiry based on the Bombay High Court's order in the extortion allegations levelled against former Home Minister Anil Deshmukh by former Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh, recorded statements of four people on Thursday. These include Singh, DCP (enforcement) Raju Bhujbal, Sachin Waze, SS Branch ACP Sanjay Patil, whose WhatsApp chats were mentioned by Singh in his complaint to the state's Chief Minister.

"We have recorded the intial statements of four people and further enquiries are underway," a CBI officer said. The CBI has also summoned a hotelier from Kandivli who went to meet Waze on March 3 with a huge amount of cash money.

Pradeep Sharma - Sachin Waze's mentor, and equally controversial

THE arrest of Sachin Waze in the Antilia bomb scare has brought back the focus on his mentor and former encounter specialist Pradeep Sharma, who was questioned by the National Investigation Agency for 9 hours on Thursday.

Sharma joined the state police in 1983 as a sub-inspector was given his first posting in Mumbai police commissionerate. He carved out a name for himself in the force for allegedly killing the ganglords in Mumbai.

Sharma once headed the Crime Intelligence Unit (CIU) that recently Waze at the helm before NIA arrested the latter in connection with Antilia bomb scare case. Before his arrest, Waze was allegedly running his shop from CIU office where he would call restaurant and bar owners to cough up money for the smooth running of their business.

Another controversial character Sharma's gun-toting career began sliding in August 2008 after the Intelligence Bureau tapped his phone conversation with the Dawood Ibrahim's henchman Chhota Shakeel. This led to his dismissal. Sharma then moved the Maharashtra Administrative Tribunal and was reinstated on May 7, 2009.

Eight months later, Sharma was arrested for his alleged role in the fake encounter of gangster Ramnarayan Gupta, alias Lakhan Bhaiyya, a close aide of Chhota Rajan, in 2006. Lakhan Bhaiyya was abducted by 17 people, including 14 cops and was gunned down at Versova.

One among the policemen involved in the killing was Vinayak Shinde, who was among the 13 cops handed a life sentence in the case. Sharma was acquitted for lack of evidence.

Shinde's name resurfaced recently following Waze's arrest in the Ambani bomb scare case and the murder of Thane businessman Mansukh Hiran. He is currently in NIA custody for his alleged role in Hiran's death.

Considered a blue-eyed boy of former Mumbai police chief Param Bir Singh, Sharma was back in the force in 2017. He joined the Thane Anti Extortion Cell which was then headed by Singh. The Antilia case also saw Singh being shunted to an insignificant posting following his sensational allegations against former home minister Anil Deshmukh.

Sharma soon hit the national headlines after he arrested Dawood's brother Iqbal Kaskar. Two years later, he took voluntary retirement to contest the assembly polls from Nalasopara as a Shiv Sena candidate. He lost to Bahujan Vikas Aghadi's Kshitij Thakur by over 40,000 votes.

Waze and Sharma's careers bear uncanny similarities. Like his mentor, Waze too was a close confidant of Singh. Waze got back to the force 16 years after he was suspended for allegedly being involved in a custodial killing. Waze was also a part of the same political party as Sharma for some time.

By Diwakar Sharma