Devendra Fadnavis rejects criticism of Badlapur case: Self-defense by police officers

Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has rejected the opposition’s allegations after the Police shot dead sexual assault accused Akshay Shinde at a school in Badlapur.

Addressing the media on the sidelines of a Bombay High Court event, Fadnavis said the opposition had been raising questions about “everything and anything”.

“It was this very opposition that demanded that the accused should be hanged. And now that the accused is shooting at the policeman, will the policemen protect themselves or not? I think it is wrong how this is being made into an issue,” Fadnavis said.

Both Fadnavis and Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde were present at the foundation stone laying ceremony of a new building of the Bombay High Court in Bandra when the news that the accused Akshay Shinde had been shot at reached everyone.

According to police, Akshay Shinde, who is accused of sexually abusing two minor girls in the school where he worked as a teacher, was being taken from Taloja jail to Badlapur for investigation when he snatched a gun from a policeman and shot at an assistant inspector as the police vehicle reached Mumbra bypass.

He was killed by a retaliatory shot from a police officer who was part of the escort team.

In August this year, there were massive protests on the streets and at a local railway station in Badlapur after theTwo underage girls were allegedly sexually abused by Shinde in the toilet of a school in the town of Badlapur in the district of Thane in Maharashtra.

The school had hired 23-year-old Shinde on August 1 as a contract cleaner, but within ten days of joining the school, he allegedly sexually assaulted two girls on separate days. The Maharashtra government set up a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to investigate the case.