Badlapur horror: Maha CID launches probe into ‘encounter killing’ of rape accused

Thane, Sep 24 (IANS) Maharashtra Crime Investigation Department (CID) has taken over the probe into the sensational ‘encounter killing’ of Akshay A. Shinde, the prime accused in the Badlapur rape of two nursery girls, officials said here on Tuesday.

As per protocols in such cases, a CID team went to the Mumbra Police Station, Thane, where the formal cases have been filed pertaining to Akshay Shinde’s death in police firing after a gun-fight with a police escort team when he was being shifted from Taloja Jail in Raigad to Badlapur town here Monday (September 23).

Officials indicated that the new special probe team formed by the Thane Police Commissioner on Monday would hand over the relevant papers to the CID for further investigations.

Meanwhile, Akshay Shinde’s autopsy was conducted this afternoon with a medical team comprising three doctors at the Sir J. J. Hospital in Mumbai and later taken back to the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Hospital in Kalwe (Thane).

After completing the relevant formalities, it would be handed over for the last rites to the family, said an official.

Earlier today, the Thane Police said that the Mumbra Police have registered an accidental death report after Akshay Shinde’s encounter killing in self-defence by the police escort team.

The police have lodged a separate case against the deceased under the BNS and Arms Act for snatching an Assistant Police Inspector Nilesh More’s service revolver and firing at him near the Mumbra Bypass Road on September 23 around 6 pm.

Akshay Shinde, 24, working as a sweeper since Aug. 1 with the Adarsh Vidya Prasarak Sanstha (AVPS)’s primary school, was charged with the alleged rape of two nursery girls aged 3 and 5 in the toilet on August 12 and 13, though it came to light only after Independence Day celebrations.

He was arrested on August 17 and as the matter erupted into the public domain it led to a nationwide outrage, a massive 10-hour citizens’ protest in Badlapur and demands to hang him publicly, blockade of Central Railway trains and local roads, slogans against the government and demanding justice for the two minor victims.

Rattled by the case fallout ahead of the Assembly elections, the MahaYuti government also initiated a series of remedial steps including the suspension of 4 cops, sacking the AVPS Trustees, transferring the case to a fast-track court, and other strong measures to quell the public anger and blunt the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi’s fierce attacks.

--IANS

qn/dan