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The man accused of raping of two nursery school girls at Badlapur, near Mumbai, died this evening after he shot at a police officer inside a police vehicle and was injured in retaliatory firing. The police said Akshay Shinde, 23, had snatched the gun of a constable and opened fire, injuring him. Amid Opposition allegations of that he was killed in an ‘encounter”, the Maharashtra government has formed a Special Investigation Team to probe the ,matter.
The police said officers from Badlapur had gone to Taloja jail to take custody of Shinde. They wanted to question him in connection with a new case filed by his first wife. The woman, who left him five days after their wedding, has accused him of rape and assault.
Around 6:30 pm, when the police team reached near the Mumbra bypass, Shinde snatched the gun of a constable and fired several rounds, injuring him. In retaliation, another officer shot Shinde, leaving him critically injured. He was taken to the hospital where he died.
Akshay Shinde, 23, was appointed on a contractual basis to clean school washrooms on August 1. But within days, he allegedly raped the four-year-olds in the school’s washroom. He was arrested on August 17 — five days after the children reported the assault to their parents.
Coming on the heels of the horrific rape-murder of a young doctor at a Kolkata hospital, the incident had led to massive protests in the town in Thane. Thousands had blocked railway lines for hours and had to be forcibly removed by the police.
The Bombay High Court, which had taken up the case on its own, had sharply criticised the police investigation, especially pointing to its deviation from rules in the questioning of the children.
“The mandate of the law is not followed by Badlapur police,” the judges had said.
“They attempted to record the victim girl’s statements at the police station. There is complete non-compliance with the mandate. Asking the victim and her parents to come to the police station for a statement recording is completely insensitive and against the law,” they said.
The school also came in for criticism, with the court questioning their process of vetting the recruits and allowing male cleaners and attendants inside girls’ washrooms.
The government later formed a Special Investigation Team (SIT) headed by senior IPS officer Arti Singh to probe the sexual assault case. Sources had said the SIT has sufficient evidence against Shinde. It became stronger after his family members gave statements. His father and brother had apparently said that he was mentally fit but had a cruel streak.
The school is also under investigation by the SIT, which has alleged that it did not comply with the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO), which mandates that every authority, when they come to know about sexual offences on minors, are obliged to report it to the police.
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