India – The police inspector who shot Badlapur sex assault accused Akshay Shinde, said he did so to protect his colleague and himself in “self-defense”.
In his statement to the police after the incident, police inspector Sanjay Shinde said the accused, after shooting and injuring assistant police inspector Nilesh More, threatened the other cops in the police van saying he will not spare them, and fired two shots.
The accused in the case was killed in an exchange of fire inside a police vehicle when he was being taken to Badlapur from Taloja jail, as part of a probe into a case registered on the complaint of his former wife on Monday evening (September 23). He was a sweeper on contract at a kindergarten school in Badlapur, where he allegedly sexually assaulted two four-year-old girls.
According to the FIR registered, Sanjay Shinde has given a detailed account of what happened in the moments before the shooting. He said he was sitting next to the driver when More, who was sitting in the back with the accused, called him and told him that Akshay was abusing them.
“I was sitting next to the driver, while accused Shinde and constables were sitting in the back. I got a call from assistant police inspector Nilesh More on my cell (mobile phone) informing me that the accused was abusing them and asking why and where he was being taken. That time, we were at Shilphata Road and had left Taloja jail. I stopped the vehicle to go and sit in the back to pacify the accused,” he said in his statement.
Sanjay said when the vehicle reached the Mumbra bypass around 6.15 pm, Akshay snatched More’s pistol. But, the cop tried to stop him and, in the scuffle, the loaded weapon went off. More got hit in the thigh and collapsed in the van, he said.
“Then the accused threatened me and other officials present in the car, and told us that he will not spare us and fired two bullets. To protect my colleague and myself in self-defense, I fired one bullet that injured him; he collapsed in the van and we overpowered him,” the inspector said.
Saying he was killed in an “encounter”, Akshay’s family members have alleged a “big conspiracy” in the Badlapur case even as the Maharashtra government is firm that the cops acted in “self-defense”. The opposition, however, has demanded a judicial probe into the incident, questioning the chain of events.
Amid a major political controversy, Thane police sources said Akshay’s post-mortem will be conducted in-camera and the case is likely to be treated as a “custodial death”. They said it will likely be handed over to the CID.
The sources further said after the case is transferred to the CID, it will probe whether there are any violations in the SOP (standard operating procedure) on how to handle a prisoner.
Who is Sanjay Shinde?
Police inspector Sanjay Shinde is part of the special investigation team (SIT) formed by the state government to probe the Badlapur school sexual assault case. But, he has in the past worked with the anti-extortion cell of the Thane police crime branch. It was then headed by former suspended cop Pradeep Sharma, known to be an “encounter specialist”.
Shinde was part of the team that arrested gangster Dawood Ibrahim’s brother Iqbal Kaskar. Sharma gained a lot of fame in the 1990s for his involvement in high-profile encounters with members of the Mumbai underworld, especially those linked to gangs led by Ibrahim and Chhota Rajan. But, he was later convicted and awarded a life term in the case of the 2006 fake encounter of Lakhan Bhaiya, who was an alleged former aide of Chhota Rajan.
Shinde has also served in the Mumbai Police. However, he was suspended after an inquiry into the escape of a murder accused, Vijay Palande, from police custody. He was accused of aiding Palande as the police later found out that the two knew each other, and Shinde’s uniform was found in the accused’s car.
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