Thane: Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Wednesday said that the police shot Akshay Shinde in self-defence, the man accused of sexually assaulting two small girls in Badlapur last month.
The chief minister’s remarks came just hours after the Bombay High Court raised serious questions over the custodial death of the accused, saying “This cannot be termed an encounter.”
He said Shinde had four wives and one of them had filed a case of unnatural sex against him and that she had called him a “monster”.
“The woman had filed an FIR against him (Akshay Shinde). She gave a statement and said he was a monster. He had four wives. Imagine what cruelty he had meted out to them,” he said.
"When he sexually assaulted those girls (in Badlapur) who are the same age as his daughters, imagine what they (victims) had gone through. This is an unfortunate incident,” he said.
Eknath Shinde accused the Opposition of changing its stance over the Badlapur incident.
“They had blocked railway services for nine hours at Badlapur railway station. They said that we would hang the culprit here. And now, when the encounter happened, they are blaming us. This is politics of hypocrisy,” he said.
The CM said the people of Maharashtra were very intelligent about who was playing politics over the incident, adding that they would give a befitting reply in the assembly election.
Meanwhile, relatives of Akshay Shinde, including his brother and aunt, began arriving at his house for the final rites. Some had come from Karnataka, sources said. When the relatives learned that the body would not arrive on Wednesday, some left, the sources added.
Shailesh Salvi, the public relations officer of Thane Police, said that they handed over the case papers of ADR and attempted murder case filed against the accused to the state CID for further investigation. The case was transferred to the state CID on Monday.
