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| India-Pakistan |
| Mumbai: Top "encounter specialist" shown the door |
| 2008-08-31 |
| Encounter specialist and former head of the Crime Investigation Unit (CIU) of the Mumbai police Pradeep Sharma has been dismissed from his service, Commissioner of Police Hasan Gafoor said on Sunday. Sharma, a senior police officer, has been dismissed after a probe found that his past records were undesirable, Gafoor said. Sharma, who was posted in the Dharavi police station in northeast Mumbai, was served the dismissal order on Saturday, he said. Asked if any further action was to be taken against Sharma, Gafoor said, "Not at the moment. If required later, we will take appropriate action." The Commissioner also refused to elaborate the reasons why Sharma had been dismissed. Sharma, who entered the police force in 1980s earned a reputation as being an encounter specialist he has reportedly killed over 100 alleged gangsters in shootouts. He had also come under a cloud during investigations intothe 2003 custodial death of Ghatkopar blast accused Khwaja Yunus and had been posted to Amravati, following High Court order. |
| Posted by:john frum |
| #8 Y'know I've heard this story many times before, find/recruit a "TopCop" who then does his job so well that he's just gotta go. Seems like the criminals really run the police dept. (Behind the scenes) |
| Posted by: Redneck Jim 2008-08-31 18:31 |
| #7 often driven to a lonely spot outside the city Funny, that story sounds familiar. Wonder where I've heard it before? |
| Posted by: Steve 2008-08-31 14:40 |
| #6 Sharma, give Bobby Jindal a call. He may be looking for a good chief of police in New Orleans. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2008-08-31 08:41 |
| #5 some of them pretty unsavory. In Ahmed Rashid's new book he alleges that India is funding the Baloch insurgencies via RAW's Dubai operations |
| Posted by: john frum 2008-08-31 08:37 |
| #4 Bombay’s Dirty Harry counts 103 kills in war on gangsters Broad-shouldered and six-feet (1.83-metres) tall, Pradeep Sharma keeps a .38-calibre quick-action revolver within easy reach as he drives through the slums and bylanes of this seaside city in a jeep with dark-tinted windows. An AK-47 lurks in a squash bag on the back seat. Zig-zagging through the bustling financial and entertainment capital for possible wanted gangsters — he eyes a street toughie outside a teashop and notes the motorcycle that just pulled up next to him. In this game, no one is to be trusted. Sharma, 42, is one of the “famous five” cops selected 15 years ago to put an end to daylight shootouts and street killings of businessmen and film dons. Their brief was simple: fight fire with fire. Sharma claims to have personally killed 103 gangsters of the total 350 police say have been gunned down in the past 10 years by the entire team. He says he and his colleagues swoop down the backstreets and dark alleys, chase gangsters and gun them down if they refuse to surrender. Their critics say the gangsters are killed in cold-blood — often driven to a lonely spot outside the city, told to run and then shot. Human rights activists breathe down their necks, saying that because these Dirty Harrys shoot first and ask questions later, they’re no better than the gangsters they kill. But with unblinking conviction, Sharma denies any of his 103 hits were in cold-blood. “They fired at me. I fired in self-defence. They had weapons. Obviously they were not going to a temple,” he says. |
| Posted by: john frum 2008-08-31 08:35 |
| #3 Dubai is taking the lead on all sorts of economic endeavors, some of them pretty unsavory. |
| Posted by: lotp 2008-08-31 08:35 |
| #2 |
| Posted by: john frum 2008-08-31 08:34 |
| #1 charges of corruption, amassing illegal wealth and having links with the Dubai based D-Company mafia. |
| Posted by: john frum 2008-08-31 08:33 |