No stranger to controversies

Pradeep Sharma, 63,

completed his schooling and college education from Dhule in north Maharashtra, where his father was a professor. He joined Maharashtra Police as a sub-inspector in 1983 and his first posting after training was at the Mahim police station in Mumbai. Soon, Sharma found place in the prestigious crime branch of Mumbai police. Underworld activities were at their peak in the city then and he went on to acquire a dubious reputation as an “encounter specialist”, reportedly involved in killing at least 112 criminals in encounters. On August 30, 2008, Sharma was unceremoniously dismissed from service for his suspected underworld links. He was reinstated nine years later, in August 2017, and posted as head of the anti-extortion cell in Thane. During this stint, he arrested fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim’s brother Iqbal Kaskar in an extortion case. Sharma resigned from service in July 2019 and joined the Shiv Sena two months later. He contested from the Nalasopara assembly constituency but lost to Bahujan Vikash Aghadi's candidate Kshitij Hitendra Thakur by a margin of 43,729 votes. On June 17, 2021, Sharma was arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in connection with planting an explosives-laden SUV outside Antilia – the south Mumbai residence of billionaire industrialist Mukesh Ambani and the subsequent murder of the vehicle owner and Thane-based trader Mansukh Hiran. He was released on August 25, 2023, two days after the Supreme Court granted him bail in the case. Sharma spent about four years in jail for his alleged role in Lakhan Bhiayya encounter killing case but was acquitted in July 2013 due to lack of evidence.