Badlapur rape case: Cop who shot accused linked to Pradeep Sharma – encounter specialist convicted in fake killing case

Akshay Shinde, the accused in the Badlapur sexual assault case, was shot dead by a police officer who was previously part of the renowned encounter specialist Pradeep Sharma’s team, reports said on Tuesday.

Police fatally shot the 23-year-old accused of raping two nursery girls at a Badlapur school on Monday, September 23. The killing occurred when Shinde allegedly snatched a policeman's gun and fired, injuring an assistant police inspector.

Senior Inspector Sanjay Shinde, formerly part of renowned encounter specialist Pradeep Sharma's team – where he headed the anti-extortion cell of the Thane Crime Branch – retaliated, killing Akshay, NDTV reported. Sanjay Shinde's past experience includes working on high-profile cases, including the arrest of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim's brother, Iqbal Kaskar, in 2017.

Akshay was declared dead at Kalwa Civic Hospital.

Earlier this year, Pradeep was convicted and sentenced to life term in jail by the Bombay High Court over the fake encounter of Ramnarayan Gupta in 2006, an alleged close aide of gangster Chhota Rajan.

Sanjay is part of the Special Investigation Team (SIT), formed by the Maharashtra government to investigate the Badlapur rape case.

In 2012, Sanjay had faced inquiry after an accused in two murder cases, Vijay Palande, fled from the police custody. Sanjay's uniform was found in the vehicle in which Palande had escaped.

Sanjay had also faced another inquiry after he exchanged gunshots with another cop after getting drunk at a bar.

In the past, he was also under the scanner in a case related to kidnapping.

Akshay was employed as a contractual sweeper at the school. He was arrested on August 17, five days after he allegedly sexually abused the two minor girls in the school toilet.

Pertinently, the mother of the accused slain has challenged the police claim of the events that led to his death in custody yesterday, NDTV reported.

According to the report, his family denied that he could fire at the cops and alleged they had pressured him to confess his role in the rape case.

"My son was afraid of bursting crackers and crossing the road. How can he shoot at policemen? The police also got the confessional statement written by him under pressure. What he was made to write, only he knows," the accused's mother and uncle, according to NDTV, told reporters last night.