Wife of Badlapur rape accused had filed case against him 3 yrs ago

The case was filed by his second wife in 2021 under Section 377 (unnatural sex) of the Indian Penal Code at the Boisar police station

THANE: The accused in the Badlapur school rape case, Akshay Shinde, has a third case against him, which was transferred to the Badlapur police station this week. The case was filed by his second wife in 2021 under Section 377 (unnatural sex) of the Indian Penal Code at the Boisar police station. The chargesheet in the Badlapur school case, filed by a Special Investigation Team (SIT), is also ready.

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Shinde’s 23-year-old second wife said in her complaint that she married him in 2021 but left after just 13 days because of his sexual perversion and cheating. She said that her community forbade marrying anyone from the Shinde clan but Akshay claimed to be a Pawar and married her. Her family could not verify his claims on account of the pandemic lockdown but 13 days into the marriage, she found Akshay’s Aadhaar card, which outed him. After enduring multiple instances of sexual perversion, she fled from the house.

The Badlapur police have formed a separate team to investigate the matter. Simultaneously, the SIT team led by IPS Aarti Singh has filed an over-200-page chargesheet in the Badlapur school case. The chargesheet contains medical reports, which state that the prolonged sexual assault of the four-year-old from August 5 to 12 broke her hymen and left her with deep injuries. She was also slapped by the accused on some occasions.

Shinde has been booked under BNS Sections 65(2) (punishment for rape on a female under 12 years of age), 74 (punishment for assaulting or using criminal force against a woman), 75, which deals with sexual harassment, 76, which outlines the punishment for assault or use of criminal force against a woman with the intent to disrobe or compel her to be naked, as well as POCSO sections 4(2), 8 and 10.

In her statement, the girl’s mother mentioned that she and her husband both worked for a living and the child was thus entrusted to her maternal grandparents in Badlapur. On August 15, she said, her father called and asked her to come the next morning with her husband. On August 16, she came to know that another girl from her daughter’s school had been sexually assaulted, after which she took her to a gynaecologist and found that her hymen was broken.

The four-year-old has mentioned in her statement that a “dada” from her school took off her clothes in the toilet. This, she said, happened several times when she went to the washroom. The girl identified the accused in the identification parade.

The police team has attached all the forensic documents and statements of the medical professional to the chargesheet. The process to appoint Ujwal Nikam as public prosecutor is still underway, and he has yet to take over the case proceedings as promised by the chief minister.

In the first week of September, the Bombay high court observed that the POCSO Act designed to protect children was not being properly implemented. This statement came during the hearing of a suo motu public interest litigation regarding the sexual assault of the two kindergarten girls at the Badlapur school. The court urged the investigating police team to build a “watertight case” and cautioned against filing a chargesheet hurriedly under public pressure. Despite this, the SIT team filed the charge sheet within a month.

Chargesheet filed

The Badlapur school chargesheet, spanning over 200 pages, includes statements from the victims’ parents, schoolteachers, other caregivers and the two wives of the accused as well as testimonies from the tehsildar and the forensic department. Additionally, the police have obtained CCTV footage from outside the school, which corroborates the child’s account of the colour of the accused’s clothing on August 12, the day of the last assault. Sources said the accused had confessed to the crime and his narration of the incident matched that of the little girl.