File picture of Pradeep Sharma

Mumbai, Aug. 31: This was a midnight knock Mumbai’s “Dirty Harry” could have done without.

Pradeep Sharma, the encounter specialist said to have gunned down 107 gangsters and inspired Bollywood in the process, was fired from the force today.

The dismissal order reached Sharma, believed to have links with the underworld, at 1am. A team led by a senior inspector from Nashik police station — Sharma was posted as an inspector there — visited his apartment in suburban Malad and handed him the dismissal papers.

“We are not pressing any charges against him right now. We will take appropriate action later, if necessary. As of now, Pradeep Sharma stands fired,” said Mumbai police commissioner Hassan Gafoor Khan.

Sharma seemed to know it was coming. “I was aware that Mumbai police would serve me the dismissal notice on Saturday or Sunday,” he said from an undisclosed location. “My friends in the force had kept me posted on the matter. I was not surprised but this is a conspiracy against me by a section of Mumbai police. I am going to fight this.”

He said the security cover around his apartment had been removed and he was worried for his wife and two daughters. “It is not safe for me to disclose my location at this point. I have not been booked under any charge. I am not running from the law,” he clarified.

Sharma, whose encounter count is the highest in the force, is also believed to have amassed wealth disproportionate to his known sources of income.

“Pradeep Sharma had become a law unto himself in the last few years. Our information is that he is quite close to some elements in Dawood Ibrahim’s gang. He has disproportionate assets compared to his official income,” said a top police source in the Mumbai crime branch.

The encounter cop, who is in his forties and has served Mumbai police for nearly 25 years, first came under the scanner during investigations into the 2003 custodial death of Ghatkopar blast accused Khwaja Yunus.

Sharma was interrogated but was not named an accused in the case. He was posted in Amravati following a high court order.

He was also associated with the Andheri crime intelligence unit. Police sources say he traded information with suspected Dawood informers.

He is one of the five referred to as “Dirty Harry” cops — after the Clint Eastwood movie of a policeman with little regard for rules but who always gets results — who were selected 15 years ago to put an end to street shootouts.

The brief for the encounter specialists was simple: fight fire with fire. Sharma alone shot 107 gangsters of the 350 that the encounter team claimed to have killed in the past 10 years.

The encounters became the subject of Bollywood films like Ab Tak Chhappan

But accusations of disproportionate assets and corruption began to surface against the other encounter specialists — Praful Bhosle, Vijay Salaskar, Ravinder Angre and Daya Nayak — in Sharma’s team.

Nayak, accused of amassing disproportionate assets and being close to the underworld, was arrested by the anti-corruption bureau in February 2006. He accused Sharma, his former mentor, of conspiring against him and facilitating his arrest at the behest of a gangster.

The police are yet to file a chargesheet against Nayak, 29 months after his arrest. It should have been filed within 60 days of the arrest, so Bombay High Court granted him bail.

Bhosle has been charged with murder in the Khwaja Yunus case.