Badlapur sexual assault case: 5 cops responsible for death of accused in custody, magistrate inquiry concludes

Mumbai: In what comes as an embarrassment to the BJP-led Maha Yuti-NDA dispensation in Maharashtra, a magisterial probe has held five policemen responsible for the death of Akshay Shinde, the accused of the Badlapur school sexual assault case, who was allegedly killed during an encounter with the police.

The report of the magistrate from Thane was on Monday submitted before a division bench of the Bombay High Court comprising Justice Revati Mohite Dere and Justice Neela Gokhale.

The judges perused through the reports during the hearing of a petition filed by Shinde’s father Anna Shinde claiming that his son was killed in a fake encounter.

The five police personnel indicted are senior police inspector Sanjay Shinde of the Thane crime branch, assistant police inspector Nilesh More, head constables Abhijeet More and Harish Tawade, and a police driver.

The bench noted that as per law, a First Information Report (FIR) shall now be registered against the five policemen, and an investigation shall be carried out.

The alleged rape took place on August 12-13, 2024 in the girls toilet of a school in Badlapur but it remained under wraps for nearly a week. However, police acted after large-scale protests.

Shinde (24), an attendant, was arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting two minor girls inside the toilet of the school in Badlapur.

On September 23, Shinde was killed in an alleged police shootout while being taken from the Taloja prison for questioning. The police claimed he snatched the gun from one of the police personnel in the police van, opened fire, and was killed in retaliatory firing.

The initial case after the encounter was registered by the Mumbra police station after which the Thane police set up an SIT to investigate the matter. The invsetigation was not taken over by the state-CID.

The incident took place when the erstwhile Eknath Shinde-led government was in power and Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis was the Home Minister.

After the Maharashtra Assembly elections held in November last year, Shinde was appointed the Deputy CM while Fadnavis took over as the CM and also as the Home Minister.

The government or police have not yet reacted to the report. “The court will decide on the issue and the government will not interfere,” said minister Sanjay Sirsat.

During the hearing, the court said, “We shall keep the original report and all documents and witness statements annexed to it with us for now. The prosecution might need it later when it probes the case.”

The court asked public prosecutor Hiten Venegaonkar to inform the bench in two weeks on which the probe agency would investigate the case.

Meanwhile, responding on behalf of the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi, Congress MLA Vijay Wadettiwar said, “The High Court has exposed the fake narrative presented by the then government ahead of the Assembly elections. The responsibility for this encounter lies as much with the police as with Shinde and Fadnavis."