Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde
Credit: PTI Photo
Mumbai: Even as the Bombay High Court raised doubts over the encounter of the accused Akshay Shinde, Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Wednesday reiterated that the police escort team fired in self-defence and asked what if the accused in the Badlapur sexual assault case had run away after opening fire.
Shinde, the chief leader of Shiv Sena, who heads the Maha Yuti dispensation, also slammed the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi for calling it a fake encounter.
When asked about the absconding trustees and management representatives of the school in Badlapur, he said one day they would surely be caught. “Where would they flee…how long would they go…police ke haath lambe hote hai,” said Shinde at a conclave in Mumbai.
On the encounter inside a police van near the Mumbra Bypass in Thane in which Akshay Shinde died, the CM said, "The police shot in self-defence. The guns are not for showpiece. If he had fled, the Opposition would have criticised and said that we made him flee. One of our police personnel got injured in the firing. We should support the police force.”
On the ongoing investigations, Shinde Akshay Shinde called him a "monster". “He had four wives…One of the women had filed an FIR against him (Akshay Shinde). She gave a statement and said he was a monster. Imagine what cruelty he had meted out to them,” he said referring to the case of unnatural sex filed by the accused Akshay Shinde's estranged second wife. In fact, when the encounter took place, Akshay Shinde was being escorted from the Taloja Jail to Badlapur.
“When he had 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.
Hitting out at the MVA opposition, Shinde said, “These people had blocked railway services for nine hours at Badlapur railway station. They demanded that we would hang the culprit here. And now, when the encounter happened, they are blaming us…let me tell you, the police have fired in self defence.”