Mumbai Police’s encounter specialist Pradeep Sharma who was arrested on charges of murder and kidnap of an alleged Chhota Rajan gang member Ramnarain Gupta alias Lakhan Bhaiyya, was presented before the court yesterday was remanded to police custody till January 14, along with 5 others. Deputy police commissioner K M M Prasanna, who heads the special investigating team probing the encounter said that Dismissed cop and encounter specialist Pradeep Sharma played a key role in the kidnapping of Ramnarayan Gupta alias Lakhanbhaiya, a criminal from Vashi, who was later shot by the police in a fake encounter. The defence counsel’s argument to transfer the remand hearing to another court was turned down. The police stand was that inspector Pradeep Suryavanshi , currently senior inspector at MIDC police station went to the park and asked Gupta to surrender. The police claimed that Gupta fired, and Suryavanshi and his team retaliated, resulting in his death. The magistrate also said that there was no examination of the weapons used by the police officers to verify these claims. Lakhan's brother Ramprasad Gupta filed a petition alleging Mumbai Police of killing him in a fake encounter. He said that he had been threatened and told to take the case back many times. Lakhan, was killed in an encounter on November 11, 2006, in Mumbai's Andheri area.