Inspector Sanjay, who shot dead sex abuse accused Akshay Shinde in Badlapur, worked with an ‘encounter specialist’ in Thane: Report – The Week

Akshay Shinde, the accused in the Badlapur school sexual assault case, was shot dead by the Mumbai police on Monday night. Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and his deputy Devendra Fadnavis said police shot dead Akshay Shinde in self-defence after he allegedly snatched a gun from a policeman and fired at an assistant inspector in the police vehicle. He was killed in a retaliatory shot by a policeman who was part of the escort team, the chief minister said.

READ HERE | Akshay Shinde, accused of sexual assault in Badlapur school, shot dead by police

According to media reports, a police officer who pulled the trigger was known to be involved in “encounters.” The officer is Police Inspector Sanjay Shinde, who is believed to have fired the shot that claimed Akshay's life. Officer Sanjay himself and Assistant Police Inspector Nilesh More were the two police officers who were injured by Akshay before he was neutralized, India Today said in a report.

Before being asked to join the Special Investigation Team (SIT) formed by the Maharashtra government to probe the Badlapur case, he had worked with the anti-extortion cell of the Thane Police Crime Branch. Shinde also served the Mumbai Police in the not too distant past, the report added.

Sanjay Shinde was part of the team that arrested gangster Iqbal Kaskar, brother of terror boss Dawood Ibrahim. Kaskar was last arrested in February 2022 in a money laundering case after raids were carried out on several properties linked to him.

However, Inspector Shinde's time with the Thane Crime Branch was most notable as the anti-extortion cell he was a part of was headed by Pradeep Sharma IPS, a well-known “encounter specialist” in Maharashtra police circles. The former Mumbai police officer reportedly eliminated over 100 criminals during his years of service. The news report said that Sharma had targeted several members of the Dawood Ibrahim and Chhota Rajan gangs in the 1990s. He was known to have carried out some spectacular encounters during that period of violent police operations, the report said.

On Monday, Inspector Sanjay Shinde was attached to the team tasked with shifting Akshay from Taloja Jail to Badlapur at the time of the incident.

Who was Akshay Shinde?

Akshay Shinde, 24, was accused of sexually assaulting two girls at the school where he worked as a teacher. Massive protests erupted on the streets and at Badlapur railway station over the incident, which shocked Maharashtra.

His ex-wife had accused him of sexual assault and the police were arresting him on these charges when he allegedly snatched a police weapon and was killed in retaliatory firing. He was taken to a hospital in Kalwa where he succumbed to his injuries.

Shinde's parents had met him at Taloja Jail at 3.30 pm. They claimed that they got the information about his death not from the police but from television channels.

The incident was condemned by the opposition parties, who questioned the sequence of events and also asked if it was an attempt to destroy evidence in a case that had sparked nationwide outrage. “Is this an attempt to destroy evidence? Were Akshay Shinde's hands not tied by the police while he was driving? How could he reach for the gun and why was the police so careless? We demand a judicial inquiry into this matter,” said Leader of the Opposition in Parliament Vijay Wadettiwar. There is no action against the “BJP-affiliated” school management, but an arrested accused was shot dead under suspicious circumstances, he said, adding, “We have no faith in the Badlapur police.”