Pradeep Sharma’s wife, daughters join Shiv Sena

The former encounter specialist had taken voluntary retirement in 2019 to contest the assembly poll from Nalasopara on a Shiv Sena ticket

Mumbai: Former encounter specialist Pradeep Sharma’s wife Swikruti Sharma and his two daughters Nikita and Ankita Sharma on Monday evening joined the Shiv Sena led by chief minister Eknath Shinde.

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“I welcome Swikruti Sharma and her daughters Nikita and Ankita into the party whole-heartedly,” Shinde said during a programme to mark their induction. He told the Sharmas that they could tell him about any pending developmental work in Andheri and he would get them completed through the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) or the state government.

Pradeep Sharma was born in Uttar Pradesh and educated in Dhule in Maharashtra’s Nandurbar district. He joined the police force as a sub inspector and claimed to have headed police parties that killed 312 criminals in encounters. Though he was suspended in 2008 for corruption, he was reinstated soon and posted in Thane.

He took voluntary retirement in 2019 to contest the assembly poll from Nalasopara on a Shiv Sena ticket, although he did not join the party; he subsequently lost the election. Later, he was arrested in the Mansukh Hiren murder case, but was released on bail, while his conviction in the Lakhan Bhaiyya murder case in 2024 was stayed by the supreme court.

The former cop is likely to contest the forthcoming assembly elections from Andheri East, where his organisation, PS Foundation, has been reportedly engaged in charitable work.