New Delhi: Amid the brouhaha over the ‘encounter’ killing of Badlapur rape case accused Akshay Shinde, it has come to light that senior police inspector Sanjay Shinde who allegedly shot dead the janitor once was recommended for dismissal from police service, The Indian Express reported. The recommendation for the Thane police crime branch officer was made by former Mumbai police commissioner Arup Patnaik because of his tainted career graph and misconduct and his interference with probe, the report added.
Sanjay Shinde was then deputed in the Mumbai crime branch, l unit-8. He got suspended as he allegedly did not take proper action when an accused Vijay Palande gave cops the slip and briefly escaped from the branch’s custody on April 10, 2022. Sanjay Shinde is a relative of Palande, the man who was apprehended in the murder cases of Arun Tikku and Karan Kakad. Sanjay Shinde’s brother is married to Palande’s elder sister.
Had links with suspects of high-profile crimes
According to police sources, after former Mumbai police commissioner Patnaik issued directions, the Mumbai crime branch carried out a probe exposing Sanjay Shinde’s links with the suspects of certain high profile crimes, and put their proposal before Patnaik. Patnaik cleared the filed and gave the recommendation to the DGP to dismiss him under Article 311 of Constitution of India.
But the then DGP declined the recommendations, as he cited inadequate and legally poor grounds to take stringent action against Sanjay Shinde and sent back the proposal to the Mumbai police for carrying out a departmental inquiry. Sanjay Shinde was already facing suspension then for his alleged misconduct.
There are also allegations that Sanjay Shinde sent a police constable to Amboli police station asking cops to free Karan Sood (while concealing his real name Palande), who was called for interrogation in connection with a missing person complaint which afterwards turned into a murder case. It was suspected by the crime branch officials that Sanjay Shinde was shielding Palande as he knew that he was a convict in a murder case.
It is also known that Sanjay Shinde worked with the controversial encounter specialist Pradeep Sharma, during his posting in Thane. Currently, Sharma is facing murder charges for allegedly killing Mansukh Hiren, a Thane businessman.
He was also allegedly put under scanner for his alleged connections with deported gangster Abu Salem, after Chiranjeev Vaghani, Milton Plastics managing director, was kidnapped from Malabar Hill in February 2000. He had also faced departmental probe for allegedly shooting himself in the foot under the influence of alcohol in a bar.
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