New Delhi, April 8 (IANS): The Supreme Court on Monday ordered that retired high-profile police officer and encounter specialist Pradeep Sharma need not surrender till further orders in an 18-year-old fake encounter case.

A bench of Justices Hrishikesh Roy and Prashant Kumar Mishra was hearing an appeal filed by Sharma against the March 19 verdict of the Bombay High Court which had reversed his acquittal and sentenced him to a life term.

The Bombay High Court had ordered Sharma, who was acquitted earlier by a Mumbai sessions court in July 2013, to surrender within a period of three weeks.

Observing that the trial court had ignored the overwhelming evidence available against Sharma, and the common chain of evidence unerringly proving his involvement in the fake encounter case, a division bench of Justices Revati Mohite-Dere and Gauri Godse of the High Court had termed the acquittal order as "perverse" and "unsustainable".

The Bombay High Court had also upheld the life sentences given to 13 other accused, including 12 policemen, in the November 11, 2006 encounter killing of Ramnarayan Gupta, 33, alias Lakhan Bhaiya, an alleged functionary of the Rajendra Sadashiv Nikhalje alias Chhota Rajan's mafia syndicate.

The matter will be taken up by the apex court after four weeks for further hearing.