Mumbai: The Bombay high court on Wednesday pulled up the police over the custodial death of the Badlapur school sexual assault accused Akshay Shinde. Stating that the incident couldn’t be termed as an “encounter”, the high court told the prosecution that it needs to come clean on the issue.
The division bench of Justice Revati Mohite Dere and Prithviraj Chavan was hearing a petition moved by deceased Shinde’s father, who has demanded a probe by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) into the encounter. Shinde, who was accused of sexually assaulting two kindergarten girls, died in the alleged police encounter on Monday, while he was being escorted by a team of Thane crime branch from Taloja Jail. The police claimed that Shinde snatched a gun of a constable and opened fire on the police team in which a policeman was injured. The police also shot him in self-defence, which fatally wounded Shinde, they claimed.
However, the high court expressed doubts over the police account of the incident. Questioning why accused Shinde was not handcuffed while being transported in a police vehicle, the court said it expects the police to conduct an impartial investigation in the matter.
“We expect the investigation to be done fairly and impartially even if the police are involved and if it is not done, we will be constrained to pass orders. Don’t take it that we are suspecting (the police action), but we are doing it because we want truth,” the bench observed.
The father has alleged that Shinde was killed in a staged encounter. The high court also raised several questions over the police account such as why Shinde was shot in the head, how he managed to snatch a gun from a policeman and why a team of trained policemen could not overpower him.
The high court sought details of CDRs, CCTV footages from Taloja jail to Shivaji hospital, fingerprints on pistol, ballistic report among others and posted further hearing to next Thursday.
Public prosecutor Hiten Venegaonkar, appearing for the Maharashtra government, told the court that it was police’s “immediate reaction” as soon as Shinde opened fire on them. However, the bench was not satisfied with the argument and said a policemen cannot say he does not know where the bullet has to be fired.and say it was spontaneous. “First you had to try to disarm him. What were you doing till he fired three bullets? He is not a hefty tall man. You could have overpowered him… This can’t be termed as an encounter. Definition of encounter is different,” it said.
The high court also asked the public prosecutor whether he had fired a pistol before, underlining that “a lay man cannot fire a pistol unless he is trained”.
Initially, the local police did not register FIRs in the case immediately even after the complaints given by victims’ parents. The police swung into action only after massive protests and rail roko on August 20. The school management suspended the principal, a class teacher and a female attendant, over the incident. The state government also suspended three policemen, including a senior police inspector, for alleged dereliction of duty. However, 23-year-old Shide was the only person arrested in the case.
Shinde was in custody for over a month. He was lodged at Taloja jail,when the crime branch took his custody on Monday. The crime branch wanted to question him in connection with another rape and assault case filed by his first wife, who had left him five days after their wedding. However, he was killed in the alleged police encounter while he was being escorted from the jail.
The police encounter has also become a police issue with the ruling parties celebrating it and the opposition parties calling it a cover operation.
