There is a very strong suspicion that the killing by the Maharashtra Police of Akshay Shinde, the prime accused in the case of the sexual assault on two minor girls in a school in Badlapur, Thane district, was a deliberate, faked encounter killing. The narrative reads like a textbook case of a fake encounter killing, and there are credible circumstances that point to it being so. The accused person was being taken from jail for investigations, he snatched a firearm from police personnel and provoked murderous retaliatory fire. Questions such as how a contractual sweeper who may not have touched a gun in his life would snatch one and how anyone in handcuffs would think of firing at the police and escaping from a running vehicle, would certainly be asked. The question why the police, who have dominance, fired to kill him, against protocol, would also be asked. These are legitimate questions.