Badlapur sexual assault accused death: Bombay High Court directs FIR against 5 cops, orders SIT probe

Mumbai: In what comes as a major embarrassment to the Maha Yuti-NDA dispensation of Maharashtra, the Bombay High Court has ordered a First Information Report (FIR) against five policeman and a probe by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) into the alleged fake encounter of Akshay Shinde, the accused involved in the sexual assault of two minor girls in a pre-primary school in Badlapur in Thane district.

The 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.

The court has asked the Crime Investigation Department (CID) to hand over the relevant case papers in two days’ time.

“The SIT should proceed with the registration of FIR at the earliest if a cognizable offence was found to have been committed,” a division bench of the Bombay High Court comprising Justice Revati Mohite Dere and Neela Gokhale said.

“Justice must not only be done, but seen to be done, We hope and trust that the SIT shall unearth the conspiracy," the bench said.

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 August 12-13.

On September 23, 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.

The next day, Shinde’s parents - Anna Shinde and Alka Shinde, through their lawyer Amit Katarnavare moved the Bombay High Court and described it as a “fake encounter”.

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.

However, in February this year, they wanted to withdraw the case.

The Maharashtra government had opposed the petition seeking registration of a FIR into Shinde’s killing, saying it had found no basis to register the case against five policemen.