Shreya Varanasi, Pune
On Wednesday, the Bombay High Court grilled the Maharashtra Police regarding the shooting of Akshay Shinde, the accused in the Badlapur school sexual assault case. Shinde was shot dead in an encounter by the Thane Police just two days before. Noting all the discrepancies in the timeline leading to the accused’s death, the Bombay High Court asked for the call records of all five people present at the time of the incident. Furthermore, the court called for a siege of the CCTV footage of Shinde’s arrival in the police van, until the time when his body reached the hospital.
A Division Bench of Justices Revati Mohite Dere and Prithviraj Chavan heard Shinde’s father’s request for a Special Investigation Team (SIT) investigation into the encounter. The court stated that Akshay Shinde’s death could not be classified as an encounter during the hearing. It also said that the CCTV footage of his parents seeing him hours before his death, as informed by his father and mother, should be confiscated.
The Court questioned the police’s account that Shinde stole a cop’s firearm, forcing them to open fire on him. It also criticized the officers for failing to protect the handgun. It further said that in such cases, the offender should be shot below the knee. It emphasized that the police officers may have overpowered Shinde, thus the police’s claims of an encounter appeared questionable.
Following the submissions, the court scheduled the next hearing on the matter for October 3 and stated that it would decide whether a First Information Report (FIR) should be lodged or not. Meanwhile, the inquiry in this matter has been handed to the CID.
Akshay Shinde, a 23-year-old, reportedly sexually molested two kindergarten girls at a Badlapur school in August. He was later detained by the police and placed in judicial detention. He was arrested again on September 23 from Taloja prison in connection with a sexual assault complaint filed by his wife. While being transported to Thane, he allegedly stole a revolver from a constable and wounded him before being fatally shot by another constable in the vehicle.