Badlapur 'encounter': Bombay HC terms sessions court's order 'shocking', keeps probe findings indicting cops on hold

Mumbai: The Bombay High Court on Thursday termed as "shocking" the sessions court's order to keep in abeyance a magistrate's findings that had questioned the genuineness of the alleged 'encounter' of the Badlapur sexual assault case accused.

The magistrate had held that the five policemen who were escorting accused Akshay Shinde were in a position to control the situation, and the use of force which resulted in his death was not justified.

As per the police, when they were taking Shinde from the Taloja prison to Kalyan in Thane district for questioning, he opened fire, and they shot him dead in self-defence.

After the policemen challenged the magistrate's inquiry report, the Thane sessions court, in an interim order, kept its findings in abeyance pending the final hearing of their revision application.

On Thursday, a division bench of Justices Revati Mohite Dere and Neela Gokhale, hearing a petition filed by the accused's father claiming that his son was killed in a fake encounter, was informed of the sessions court's order.

The bench asked how the sessions court could pass such an order when the HC was seized of the matter.

"When the matter is sub-judice, could the sessions court have even entertained the application (of the policemen)? Has the sessions judge not over-reached and overstepped his jurisdiction? This is a question of judicial impropriety," the bench said.

"We don't know what to say. This is shocking. Did the state not inform the sessions court that the HC is seized of the matter? Is the state planning to challenge the sessions court order? Are you (State) not appalled and shocked," the judges said.

The high court, meanwhile, on Thursday appointed senior advocate Manjula Rao as an amicus curiae (to assist the court) after Shinde's parents said they did not wish to pursue the case further.

The court asked Rao to assist the court on several issues including whether the state government should register an FIR based on the magistrate's report.

"The State has said a commission has already been set up and the CID too is carrying out a probe into the custodial death of the accused, so no cognizance need be taken of the magistrate report," the HC said.

But once an offence is disclosed, the State is responsible to take it to is logical conclusion, the court said.

"Also can a commission and CID probe come in the way of registration of FIR based on the magistrate inquiry report? We want you (Rao) to argue on this," HC said, posting the matter for further hearing on March 5.

Akshay Shinde was arrested in August 2024 for allegedly sexually assaulting two kindergarten girls in the toilet of a private school in Badlapur in Thane district. He was an attendant at the school.

On September 23, 2024, he was killed in an alleged shootout. The police claimed he snatched the gun of one of the police personnel in the police van, opened fire, and was killed in retaliatory firing.