HC raises doubts about police encounter

Over four months after Akshay Shinde, the accused in the Badlapur school sexual assaults case, was killed in what the police claimed was retaliatory firing, the Bombay high court on Monday raised serious doubts about the genuineness of the police encounter after going through a judicial inquiry report into the incident.

- Karuna Nidhi and Prateem Rohanekar

MUMBAI:

The high court also directed the Maharashtra Criminal Investigation Department (CID) to probe the allegations of the petitioner, Akshay Shinde's father Anna Shinde, that he was being threatened and pressured to withdraw the case. Anna Shinde has claimed that his son's death was a cold-blooded murder committed by the police for political reasons.

The bench of justices Revati Mohite-Dere and Neela Gokhale ordered the state CID to submit a report after investigating Anna Shinde's allegations by February 6. The bench passed the order after advocate Amit Katarnavare, representing Shinde, requested the court to provide police protection to his client because of the alleged threats to withdraw the case. He also claimed that Shinde was being coerced to change his lawyer.