Police personnel at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Hospital after Akshay Shinde, an accused in the Badlapur school sexual assault case, was shot dead by police in self-defence, in Thane, on September 23, 2024. | Photo Credit: PTI
The family member of the Badlapur sexual assault case accused Akshay Shinde has challenged the police statement that he fired at the first policeman after which the police fired in self-defense which led to his death.
Shinde’s family also claimed that the police forced him to confess to the sexual assault case.
Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Monday (September 23, 2024) night said that a high-level inquiry has been ordered into the incident that led to Shinde’s death.
Shinde’s body was taken from the Kalwa civil hospital in Thane to the state-run JJ Hospital in neighboring Mumbai for a postmortem on Tuesday (September 24, 2024) morning, a senior Thane police official said.
An autopsy was being conducted at JJ hospital, he added.
Shinde, 24, is accused of sexually assaulting two minor girls at a school in Badlapur town of Thane district.
A contract sweeper at a school in Badlapur, Shinde was arrested on August 17, five days after he allegedly molested the two girls in the school toilet.
The family challenge meets the theory
He was killed near Mumbra Bypass in Thane on Monday evening when he allegedly grabbed a police gun while he was being taken to a police vehicle as part of the investigation into a case registered against him on the complaint of his ex-wife, an official. earlier said.
After API was shot and injured, another officer of the police escort team shot him, and he was declared brought dead by doctors at Kalwa civil hospital, the official said.
However, his family members have challenged the theory that Shinde fired at the police first and later the police retaliated.
“It is not wrong to say that he first took the police gun and shot him, then the police shot him in self-defence,” Shinde’s mother and uncle told reporters outside the Kalwa hospital on Monday night.
“The police asked for a confessional statement written by a person under pressure to the effect that they have committed a crime. Whether they wrote it from someone, only they know,” they claimed.
Akshay Shinde’s father, Anna Shinde, has said that an investigation should be carried out into his son’s murder.
‘Conspiracy by police and school management’
His mother and uncle said it was a conspiracy by the police and the Badlapur school management.
They claimed that Akshay had told his brother that he was beaten up by the police in custody and that he had also sent him money to earn money.
His mother and uncle questioned the police’s version and insisted that they could not seize the police’s weapons.
He was not depressed, he added.
“The police have killed our child. The school management should also be investigated. The police asked someone to write something but we don’t know what it is, only they know,” Kin further alleged.
“My son is afraid of bursting crackers and crossing the street, how can he shoot the police?” asked Akshay’s mother.
His family members also said that he should be brought to court for trial in the case, and how the police shot him dead.
“The allegations (in the case against Akshay) are not proved,” he said. Akshay’s mother said that she asked him when he would be released.
Police were deployed around the hospital
Several videos showing bodies being taken for autopsy on Tuesday surfaced on social media.
Akshay’s parents were also seen waiting outside the locked gates of the well-maintained Kalwa civil hospital to see their dead son, but to no avail.
No one was allowed to go near the room where he was kept at the Kalwa hospital after doctors declared Shinde dead.
The surrounding area of ​​the hospital turned into a fortress with many police personnel stationed there.
Meanwhile, NCP (SP) Kalwa-Mumbra MLA Jitendra Awhad also challenged the police version and termed it as “baseless”.
“How can a handcuffed man grab a policeman’s revolver and shoot him, when there are five other policemen,” Awhad told the TV channel.
He claimed the ruling party would take full credit for everything that happened in the upcoming state assembly elections.
“It’s true that they planned and killed him,” Awhad said.
He said everyone knows who the school is where the sexual harassment happened. “Who is Apte?” he asked.
Published – September 24, 2024 11:09 AM IST
