New Delhi: Frowning at Maharashtra Police over the custodial death of Badlapur rape accused Akshay Shinde, the Bombay High Court on Wednesday said that there seemed to be a foul play and the incident can’t be called an “encounter”. A fair and impartial probe into the incident is needed, the court added.
The court ordered the police to preserve the CCTV footage from the time Akshay Shinde was brought out of the prison till the time he was declared dead at Shivaji Hospital.
The court asked why was the bullet shot in the head. “They (cops) are trained. They knew exactly where to fire, and should have shot in the hands or the legs of the accused. There were four policemen behind, then how is it possible that they were not able to overpower a not-so-strong or huge built man. This is very difficult to accept. This cannot be dubbed as an encounter,” the court noted.
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Police said Akshay Shinde, who was accused of sexually abusing two minor girls at a Badlapur school, was being taken to Taloja jail when he snatched Assistant Police Inspector Nilesh More’s revolver and shot at the escorting police team, injuring three policemen. It was in the retaliatory firing by the police that he was killed, the police claim.
The court asked the police to show it the injury certificate of the police officers. It also questioned: Have the papers been sent to Human Rights? The court also issued directions to get a forensic report and find out from what distance the bullet was fired and where did it go after leaving the head? Where did the bullet hit? The weapon will be examined by a ballistic forensic expert.
Father seeks SIT probe
The High Court was hearing the plea filed by Anna Shinde, who has sought a probe by a Special Investigation Team into his son’s death. The petitioner has claimed that Akshay Shinde was killed in view of the upcoming Maharashtra Assembly polls.
The lawyer of Akshay Shinde’s father Anna Shinde said in the court that his allegation was that Akshay had been murdered to save some people. He told the court that Akshay’s family hasn’t been able to find a place to cremate him.
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