Today, On 1st October, The Bombay High Court criticized the Special Investigation Team (SIT) for not arresting the accused school trustees in the Badlapur case. The court expressed dissatisfaction with the lack of progress in apprehending the suspects, despite the severity of the allegations. The trustees are accused of mismanagement and other serious offenses.
Mumbai: The Bombay High Court on Tuesday voiced strong disapproval of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) for failing to arrest two school trustees involved in the Badlapur sexual assault case.
Justices Revati Mohite Dere and Prithviraj Chavan, part of the division bench, criticized the police for their inability to apprehend the accused, despite their usual swiftness in similar cases.
The case, which the court took suo motu cognizance of in August, centers around the sexual assault of two young girls, aged four and five, by a male attendant in the school’s washroom in Badlapur, located in Maharashtra’s Thane district.
The attendant, Akshay Shinde, arrested but later died in a police shoot-out on September 23.
Following the incident, the Maharashtra government formed an SIT, headed by an Inspector General of Police, to investigate the allegations of sexual abuse at the school. The trustees, who served as chairman and secretary, were also charged under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act for their negligence and failure to report the incident promptly.
Advocate General Birendra Saraf informed the court that despite efforts, the trustees remain at large and have filed for anticipatory bail.
The court questioned the police’s effectiveness, asking,
“The police go to any extent to nab an accused. How come they have not been able to apprehend these two? Are they waiting for them to get anticipatory bail?”
Akshay Shinde, 23, 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 arrested on August 17 five days after the children reported the assault to their parents.
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.
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