I-T department searches ex-cop Pradeep Sharma, retired IAS officer’s premises

Around eight I-T department officials visited the Everest Heights building in Powai around 8.30am, where Pradeep Sharma resides on the 19th floor after he came out on bail in the Antilia explosive scare and Thane Businessman Mansukh Hiran’s murder case

MUMBAI: The Income Tax (I-T) department on Thursday conducted searches at multiple locations in the city, including the residence of retired encounter specialist Pradeep Sharma and retired IAS officer Nirmal Deshmukh. Though the buzz was that the duo was under the scanner for routing money for Maratha agitation, sources in the I-T department said the searches were related to a city-based real estate developer for suspected tax evasion.

Around 15 police personnel were posted outside Sharma’s building, Everest Heights in Powai.

“Initially, the searches were conducted on the developer’s premises for suspected tax evasion. After the I-T officers scanned the documents they found there, the department started the searches at the premises of Sharma and Deshmukh,” said an I-T official.

Around eight I-T department officials visited the Everest Heights building in Powai around 8.30am, where Pradeep Sharma resides on the 19th floor after he came out on bail in the Antilia explosive scare and Thane Businessman Mansukh Hiran’s murder case.

The I-T officials seized all the mobile phones of Sharma and his family members. The retired cop was at home when the I-T officials reached there, said a source.

Around 4pm, the IT officials asked Mumbai police to deploy police personnel outside the building, and accordingly, around 15 police personnel were posted at the building premises and were checking every visitor of the building.

A senior official from the I-T department said, “The raids are going on at 10 to 12 locations in the city and are likely to continue tomorrow.” The premises being searched, included Deshmukh’s residence as well, the sources said. They, however, did not reveal the location of the searches.

63-year-old Sharma, who claims to have killed at least 112 criminals in encounters, was arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in the Antilia explosives scare and Mansukh Hiran murder case. He came out on bail in August last year.

Sharma, however, is no stranger to controversies. Apart from facing accusations of maintaining contact with fugitive gangsters and acting at their behest, he was tried for conspiracy charges in the Lakhan Bhaiya fake encounter case.

Ramnarayan Gupta aka Lakhan Bhaiyya, and his friend Anil Bheda were picked up by a police team from Vashi and the former was killed in a fake encounter near Nana Nani Park in Versova on November 11, 2006.

A Special Investigation Team (SIT), appointed on orders of the high court, investigated the matter and found that a rival of Lakhan Bhaiyya, who was said to be associated with the Chhota Rajan gang, had given a contract to the policemen to kill him, and the fake encounter was nothing but the execution of the contract.

Accordingly, 22 persons, including encounter specialists Pradeep Sharma and Pradeep Suryavanshi, some other policemen, and eight private persons were booked for the “cold-blooded murder.”

On August 30, 2008, Sharma was unceremoniously dismissed from service for his suspected underworld links. He was reinstated after nine years in August 2017 and posted as head of the anti–extortion cell in Thane. During this posting, he arrested fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar’s brother, Iqbal Kaskar, in an extortion case.

Sharma resigned from service in July 2019 and tried his luck in active politics. Two months after his resignation, he joined Shiv Sena and contested elections from theNalasopara assembly constituency, but lost to Bahujan Vikash Aghadi’s candidate Kshitij Hitendra Thakur by a margin of 43,729 votes.