Fate of encounter specialists
1906 Julio Ribeiro Pradeep Sharma was arrested in Mumbai by the NIA last week. The arrest made front-page news in local newspapers because he was a swashbuckling, risk-taking encounter specialist of the Mumbai police for several years between 1989 and 2008, when he was dismissed from service by Anami Roy, the then Police Commissioner. Anami got rid of him under Article 311 of the Constitution after evidence to show that he was in cahoots with the underworld came to light. In 2014, Sharma decided to challenge his dismissal before the Maharashtra administrative tribunal, which set aside the dis...