Parents of Akshay Shinde, the accused in the Badlapur sexual assault case of two minor girls, outside the Kalwa Hospital where his body was brought after the police encounter, in Thane.
Credit: PTI Photo
Mumbai: In a surprising development, Badlapur school sexual assault accused Akshay Shinde's parents told the Bombay high court on Thursday they don't want to pursue their petition seeking probe into his encounter death.
On 23 September, Shinde (24) was shot dead inside a police van near the Mumbra Bypass when he was being escorted from the Taloja Jail in Navi Mumbai to Badlapur in Thane for investigations.
A day after the incident, Akshay Shinde’s parents - father Anna Shinde and mother Alka Shinde had moved the Bombay High Court describing the incident as a “fake encounter”.
On Thursday, during the hearing, Shinde’s parents made the appeal before a division bench of Justice Revati Mohite Dere and Justice Neela Gokhale that they were no longer keen on pursuing the case and wanted it to be closed.
The couple also said they were under no pressure from anyone and had made the statement on their own.
The development came days after, a Magistrate Ashok Shengde’s report had indicted five police personnel - Senior Police Inspector Sanjay Shinde of the Thane Crime Branch, Assistant Police Inspector Nilesh More, Head Constables Abhijeet More, Head Constable Harish Tawade and a police driver.
The report, which was submitted to the High Court noted that “contention raised by the police personnel of right to private or self-defence comes under a shadow of suspicion” owing to evidence and other circumstances.
Meanwhile, senior counsel Amit Desai, appearing for Maharashtra, sought the Bombay High Court’s direction to access some material considered by the magistrate for the inquiry into the alleged encounter.
He told the court that the material was not with the police as the magistrate had recorded the statements of witnesses separately. “The police investigation into the matter is not over and they are in a better position to analyse the material,” Desai told the court.
The matter will be heard further on Friday.
Advocate Amit Katarnavare, who is representing the Shinde family, said that custodial death is an offence against the society, not just the family.