Badlapur encounter: Akshay Shinde’s parents want to withdraw son’s custodial death case 

Parents of deceased Badlapur sexual assault accused withdraw case against Thane police in alleged encounter, citing difficulties in pursuing justice.

Parents of Badlapur sexual assault accused Akshay Shinde (24), who was shot dead in an alleged encounter with the Thane police in September 2024, informed the Bombay High Court on Thursday (February 6, 2025) that they do not want to pursue their son’s custodial death case anymore.  

The parents had earlier moved the High Court with a petition seeking a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to investigate their son’s death and that it was a staged encounter by the police.   

On Thursday (February 6, 2025), the parents told the Division Bench of Justices Revati Mohite Dere and Neela Gokhale that they could not run around anymore for getting a logical conclusion of the case and they requested the Bench to allow them to withdraw the case. 

The judges asked them whether they were under anyone’s pressure to withdraw the case as the case could not be closed suddenly when there had been numerous developments in the matter. The parents responded that they were under no pressure and that it was their independent decision to withdraw the case as the running around had caused a lot of difficulty in their daily lives.  

On January 20, 2025, the magistrate inquiry report submitted before the High Court found that five police officers: senior inspector Sanjay Shinde from the Thane crime branch, assistant inspector Nilesh More, head constables Abhijeet More, Harish Tawade and police van driver Satish Khatal, were responsible for the custodial death of Akshay Shinde.   

The five Thane police officers were present in a moving van with Akshay Shinde when he was shot dead on September 23, 2024, found the report. But the police had claimed that the accused snatched a gun from a constable and injured him and his action forced the police to shoot him down.  

The magistrate’s report stated that the police officers were in a position to easily handle the situation without resorting to force and that the police officers’ action to encounter was not justified in the case.