"A body found in Manor jungles in the outskirts of the city has been identified as that of Anil Bheda. Bheda, who went missing from March 13, had been kidnapped and killed," Additional Public Prosecutor Ajay Gadkari told the court.
A division bench of Justices B H Marlapalle and U D Salvi, which was hearing a haebas corpus (produce the person) petition filed by Bheda's wife Aruna, has now directed the police to decide their further course of investigation and submit a report within two weeks.
Bheda -- the prime witness in the fake encounter case in which several policemen, including encounter specialist Pradeep Sharma, were arrested -- had gone missing from his residence in Navi Mumbai since March 13. He was to depose in court on March 18.
In November 2006, one Ramnarayan Gupta was shot dead by the police in an encounter on the suspicion that he was an aide of gangster Chhota Rajan.
A judicial enquiry later established that it was a fake encounter following which a special investigative team was formed which arrested 21 persons, including several policemen.
Published 21 July 2011, 12:40 IST