Mumbai: Akshay Shinde, who was accused of sexually assaulting two girls at a school in Badlapur, Thane, last month, was shot dead by police on Monday evening during an alleged scuffle in the police vehicle that was transporting him from Taloja jail to Badlapur.
Police said that Shinde snatched a revolver from one of the policemen accompanying him in the vehicle and shot at them before the police fired back at him in self-defence, killing him. Three police officers are reported to have been injured in the incident.
Shinde was accompanied by a police escort that included Police Inspector Sanjay Shinde and Assistant Police Inspector Nilesh More. Police sources said that Sanjay Shinde previously worked with former policeman and ‘encounter specialist’ Pradeep Sharma at the Anti-Extortion Cell of the Thane Police’s Crime Branch.
He was also part of the special team that arrested Iqbal Kaskar, brother of gangster Dawood Ibrahim, under Sharma’s leadership. His experience and expertise in handling high-priority cases led to his inclusion in the Special Investigation Team (SIT) formed by the state government to probe the Badlapur rape case.
On Monday, the Thane crime branch, which had taken custody of the accused in a case of unnatural sex filed by his second wife, was transporting him from Taloja jail, where he was being held, to Badlapur for investigations. The incident is reported to have happened at 5.30 pm when the vehicle reached the Mumbra bypass that connects Navi Mumbai and Thane.
Police sources said Shinde snatched a revolver from the waist of an officer sitting next to him and fired three times. The first shot hit More in the thigh and the other shots were fired indiscriminately, causing minor injuries to two other policemen. In response, Police Inspector Sanjay Shinde fired at the accused, striking him point-blank in the forehead.
Shinde reportedly collapsed in a pool of blood after bullet injuries on his head. The police team took the accused and More to Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Hospital in Kalwa for treatment. More, who received severe injuries, was later taken to Jupiter Hospital in Thane. Shinde was declared dead at the hospital.
Deputy Chief Minister, Devendra Fadnavis, who addressed the media after the incident, said that the police fired at the accused in self-defence after Shinde fired from the snatched revolver, injuring the police officers.
The assault on the two children, which is reported to have taken place on August 12 and 13 in the school’s washroom, and the delay by the police in filing an FIR, had led to massive protests in Badlapur on August 20, with thousands of people rioting on the streets and disrupting train services. The state government had appointed a Special Investigative Team to fast-track the case. Shinde, 24, was working as a cleaner at the school in August.
According to the two chargesheets filed on September 16 and 19 filed by the police, one of the children was exposed to prolonged sexual assault between August 5 and 12, causing deep injuries to her private parts. The second child, also a kindergarten student, was also exposed to sexual assault and harassment, the chargesheet suggested.
The FIR against Shinde accuses him under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita sections 65 (2) (rape on female under 12 years of age), 74 (assault or use of criminal force against a woman), 75 (sexual harrasment), 76 (assault or use of criminal force against a woman with intent to disrobe or compel her to be naked).
Other than this, the FIR mentions sections 4 (2) (penetrative sexual assault), 8 (sexual assault) and 10 (aggravated sexual assault) of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act.
A fresh FIR lodged against him by a 23-year-old woman who was his second wife at Boisar police station has accused him under Section 377 (unnatural sex) of the Indian Penal Code. The case was transferred to Badlapur (East) police and then to the Thane Crime Branch for investigation.
“The victim, along with a social worker, approached the police station to file a police report against her ex-husband for engaging in unnatural sex with her. Upon receiving the complaint, we registered a case,” Senior Inspector at Boisar Police Station, Shirish Pawar, said.
The Central Unit of the Thane Crime Branch police took the accused into remand from Taloja jail for unnatural sex case investigation. The woman had married the accused four year ago and had left him after he allegedly forced her to have “unnatural sex” with him, said police.
Police sources said that two police vehicles were present at the time of the transit remand, and officials from the crime branch and detention branch. The sources of the police mentioned that they were all trained officers in the escort police team.
