Mumbai: In a dramatic twist in the Badlapur school sexual assault case, two trustees of the school were on Thursday granted bail by a sessions court. However, the police immediately took them into custody in the second case. Two kindergarten girls were sexually assaulted by attendant Akshay Shinde. Meanwhile, the Bombay High Court ordered the judicial magistrate investigating the alleged police encounter of the accused to submit their report by November 18.
Uday Kotwal and Tushar Apte, trustees of the school, were arrested after their anticipatory bail was rejected by the Bombay High Court. The Kalyan Sessions Court, where they were produced on Thursday, observed that the charge levelled against them — failure to report the sexual assaults at their school to the police was bailable. Additional district judge PP Muley granted bail to the trustees on furnishing surety of Rs 25,000.
However, the judge allowed the state-appointed special investigation team (SIT) to arrest the two in a second case registered in connection with the assaults. After getting the court’s permission to rearrest the two, the police said they would complete the arrest formalities and produce the trustees before the court on Friday.
The two were arrested on Wednesday night by the Ulhasnagar Crime Branch from Karjat and were later handed over to the SIT probing the sexual assault case. Shinde had sexually assaulted two four-year-old girls at the school on August 12 and 13. However, despite being made aware of the complaints received from the victims’ guardians, the school management did not report the incident to the police or any other authority.
Meanwhile, the high court has ordered an expedited magisterial inquiry into the custodial death of the main accused in the case. “Law mandates that when there is a custodial death, the investigation be conducted by the Magistrate. Let the investigation be conducted. We will wait for the report of the Magistrate. The report shall be placed before us on November 18. The Magistrate inquiry report is expedited,” division bench of Justices Revati Mohite-Dere and Prithviraj K. Chavan said.
The high court was hearing the pela filed by Shind’s father, who has alleged that his son was killed in a staged encounter and demanded an inquiry by a Special Investigation Team into it.
The police have claimed that Shinde while being taken from Taloja Jail to Thane for interrogation in connection with a case filed by his former wife, snatched the weapon of one of the policemen escorting him. According to the police, Shinde shot three rounds at the escort team injuring a policeman. The police claimed to have opened fire on him in self-defence, in which he died. The alleged encounter took place on September 23.
The high court said that it was necessary to properly examine the police officer who sustained a gunshot injury and to investigate his injury certificate.
