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, Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024.
Credit: PTI Photo
Mumbai: In a fresh development into the sensational Badlapur case, a new Special Investigation Team (SIT) set up to probe the role of a police escort team who gunned down the Akshay Shinde, the accused involved in sexual assault of two minor girls last year.
Director General of Police Rashmi Shukla appointed Additional Commissioner of Police Dattatray Shinde, posted at Mira Bhayandar Vasai Virar (MBVV) Police Commissionerate, as the head of the SIT.
He will be assisted by a team of officers from MBVV, Navi Mumbai Police Commissionerate and Pimpri-Chinchwad Police Commissionerate.
The SIT has taken in its possession all case-related documents from the Crime Investigation Department (CID) which was probing the case earlier, and started a fresh investigation.
Shinde (24) who was employed as a cleaner in the school, was arrested on 16 August for the sexual assault of two four-year-old girls at the pre-primary school in Badlapur East on 12-13 August 2024.
On 23 September, Shinde died during a scuffle with a police escort team when he snatched the pistol of a police officer inside a police van and injured him and “opened fire” before he was shot dead in a “retaliatory fire” in Mumbra area when being escorted from Taloja Jail to Badlapur.
In January, a magisterial probe indicted 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 Satish Khatau for the death of Shinde.
It may be mentioned, earlier the Bombay High Court directed an FIR and probe by SIT headed by an officer of the rank of Deputy Commissioner of Police will function under the supervision of Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Lakhmi Gautam, who heads the Crime Branch of Mumbai Police.
However, the Maharashtra government then moved the Supreme Court , which ordered the state DGP to constitute a new SIT. The order on SIT also stated that there was no need of registration of a new FIR as there was already a case registered at Mumbra Police Station.