'Encounter specialist' Pradeep Sharma returns to Mumbai Police force

Mumbai: Mumbai Police's "Encounter specialist" Pradeep Sharma was reinstated by the Maharashtra government on Wednesday.

Inspector Sharma had been dismissed in 2008.

In 2006 Sharma was acquitted of all charges in the 2006 alleged murder of gangster Ram Narayan Gupta.

Pradeep Suryawanshi, who was leading the police team when Gupta was killed November 11, 2006, was found guilty of murder. Another 20, including 13 policemen, were also convicted on various charges.

Sharma, who joined the police force in 1983, was credited with several `encounter' deaths in Mumbai before his dismissal from the service in 2008 for alleged links with the Dawood Ibrahim gang and his role in the Lakhan Bhaiyya fake encounter, a senior police official said.