Badlapur sex abuse case: HC seeks Maharashtra’s response on magisterial probe into custodial death

The Bombay High Court on Monday asked the Maharashtra government to make its submission by February 6 on the actions it plans to take on a magisterial inquiry into the custodial death of a man accused of sexually abusing two minor girls in Badlapur, reported India Today.

On January 20, a Thane magistrate told the High Court that five police officers were found responsible for the custodial death of Akshay Shinde, who allegedly sexually abused the minors on August 12 on the premises of their school. Shinde used to work as a janitor at the school.

Four days after the abuse, one of the children reported the incident to her parents who approached the police. Shinde was arrested on August 17.

On September 23, Shinde died while he was being taken from Taloja Jail in Navi Mumbai to the Crime Branch office in Thane in connection with a separate case of sexual assault filed by his second wife in 2022.

The magisterial inquiry into the killing found that the police could have “easily handled the situation”.

Following this, a High Court bench of Justices Revati Mohite Dere and Neela Kedar Gokhale directed the Maharashtra government to register a first information report against the personnel and start further legal proceedings.

“What happened to the magistrate’s enquiry report?” the court asked.

It added: “You…

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