[Badlapur Kindergarten Rape] “Where Are Other 2 Bullets?”: HC Questions Cops On Accused Custody Death

Two days after Badlapur sex assault accused Akshay Shinde was shot dead in custody, the Bombay High Court Today (Sept 25) asked tough questions to police about the circumstances leading to the 24-year-old’s death. The court was hearing a petition by Shinde’s father, who has alleged that his son was killed in a fake encounter and has demanded a probe by a Special Investigation Team.

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MUMBAI: Two days after Badlapur sex assault accused Akshay Shinde was shot dead in custody, the Bombay High Court asked tough questions to police about the circumstances leading to the 24-year-old’s death. The court was hearing a petition by Shinde’s father, who has alleged that his son was killed in a fake encounter and has demanded a probe by a Special Investigation Team.

Akshay Shinde (24) was accused of sexually assaulting two minor girls at a school in Badlapur where he worked as a sweeper. He was being taken from Taloja Jail to Badlapur Monday when he snatched a policeman’s pistol and opened fire. An assistant inspector was injured and Shinde was killed in retaliatory firing, police have said.

The Bombay High Court pulled up Mumbai police over the custodial death of the Badlapur sexual assault accused, saying there appeared to be foul play and the incident could not be “termed an encounter”. The court also directed the police to preserve the CCTV footage from the time the accused, Akshay Shinde, was brought out of the jail till he was declared dead at Shivaji Hospital.

Police said Shinde, accused of sexually abusing two girls at a Badlapur school, was being taken to Badlapur from Taloja jail when he snatched Assistant Police Inspector Nilesh More’s pistol and fired at the escorting police team, injuring three cops. Shinde was then killed in retaliatory firing by police.

After the Chief Public Prosecutor, representing the state, narrated the sequence of events, the court said,

“This is hard to believe. Prima facie, there is foul play. A layman cannot fire a pistol, unlike a revolver which any tom, dick and harry can do. A weak man cannot load a pistol as it needs strength.”

The High Court was hearing the petition filed by the accused’s father, Anna Shinde, who sought a probe by a Special Investigation Team into his son’s death in the “fake encounter”. The petitioner claimed Shinde was killed in view of the forthcoming Assembly elections.

The court said that the accused was not a “strong man” and could have been overpowered by the four police officers after he pulled the first trigger.

“This cannot be termed as an encounter. This is not an encounter,”

-the bench said, adding that it was hard to believe the police narrative.

BACKGROUND

The man accused of raping of two nursery school girls at Badlapur, near Mumbai, died on September 23, 2024, after he shot at a police officer inside a police vehicle and was injured in retaliatory firing.

The police said Akshay Shinde, 23, had snatched the gun of a constable and opened fire, injuring him. Amid Opposition allegations of that he was killed in an ‘encounter‘, the Maharashtra government has formed a Special Investigation Team to probe the ,matter.

The police said officers from Badlapur had gone to Taloja jail to take custody of Shinde. They wanted to question him in connection with a new case filed by his first wife. The woman, who left him five days after their wedding, has accused him of rape and assault.

Around 6:30 pm, when the police team reached near the Mumbra bypass, Shinde snatched the gun of a constable and fired several rounds, injuring him. In retaliation, another officer shot Shinde, leaving him critically injured. He was taken to the hospital where he died. The constable, Nilesh More, who was also injured, is under treatment at a hospital.

THE CASE

Akshay Shinde, 23, was appointed on a contractual basis to clean school washrooms on August 1. But within days, he allegedly raped the four-year-olds in the school’s washroom. He was arrested on August 17 — five days after the children reported the assault to their parents.

Coming on the heels of the horrific rape-murder of a young doctor at a Kolkata hospital, the incident had led to massive protests in the town in Thane. Thousands had blocked railway lines for hours and had to be forcibly removed by the police.

The Bombay High Court, which had taken up the case on its own, had sharply criticised the police investigation, especially pointing to its deviation from rules in the questioning of the children.

“The mandate of the law is not followed by Badlapur police,”

-the judges had said.

“They attempted to record the victim girl’s statements at the police station. There is complete non-compliance with the mandate. Asking the victim and her parents to come to the police station for a statement recording is completely insensitive and against the law,”

-they said.

The school also came in for criticism, with the court questioning their process of vetting the recruits and allowing male cleaners and attendants inside girls’ washrooms.

The government later formed a Special Investigation Team (SIT) headed by senior IPS officer Arti Singh to probe the sexual assault case. Sources had said the SIT has sufficient evidence against Shinde.

It became stronger after his family members gave statements. His father and brother had apparently said that he was mentally fit but had a cruel streak.

The school is also under investigation by the SIT, which has alleged that it did not comply with the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO), which mandates that every authority, when they come to know about sexual offences on minors, are obliged to report it to the police. Two of the school’s trustees are on the run.

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