Court raps probe team over inability to arrest Badlapur sex assault case accused

The Bombay High Court on Tuesday pulled up the Special Investigation Team (SIT) for not being able to arrest the chairman and secretary of the school in Badlapur, who were accused of not reporting the sexual assault case that took place in the school premises on August 12 and 13.
The bench of Justices Revati Mohite-Dere and Prithviraj Chavan said, “The police goes to any extent to nab an accused. How come they have not been able to apprehend these two? Are they waiting for them to get anticipatory bail?”
Maharashtra Advocate General Birendra Saraf opposed this and said, “We have been making all endeavours to trace them. A timeline of our efforts can be seen. We have been opposing the anticipatory tooth and nail. It was rejected in the sessions court.”
The SIT has formed two distinct teams to look for the Chairman Uday Kotwal and school secretary Tushar Apate.
Even the Thane police commissionerate had been roped in to look for the duo. The two teams have questioned friends and relatives of the two, but they are absconding, submitted Saraf.
The SIT even requested the cyber cell to help track the social media and email usage of the accused persons.
The SIT has accessed the call records of the two accused and spoken to those people with whom they had been most in touch with. Houses of friends and relatives were also watched. Their resorts and farm houses have been searched by the police, Saraf told the court.
The SIT submitted that a letter has been forwarded to the local Special Court to declare accused Uday Kotwal and Tushar Apte as absconding.
However, the bench noted that when the accused are availing their statutory right to file anticipatory bail, then they cannot be declared as absconding.
Meanwhile, advocates representing the victims submitted that the monetary compensation to be disbursed for victims of sexual assault has not been released by the state and so far, only Rs 30,000 has been given.
The lawyers also pointed out that the investigation was done in such an opaque manner that even the chargesheet filed by the police against accused Akshay Shinde, who was encountered by the police, and the headmistress of the school had not been given to them.
Shinde had been accused of raping two girls in a school toilet in Badlapur. He was fatally shot on September 23 while being transported in a police vehicle. Police claimed that he was killed in retaliatory fire after he allegedly seized a police weapon and opened fire on officers.
Moreover, the details of the departmental enquiry that police had initiated against the Badlapur Police for their insensitive approach in handling the cases of the victims, were not given to them. A departmental enquiry against the senior police Inspector of police for dereliction of duty and against two police constables is still underway.
The bench directed that under law the victims have to be informed about the progress of the case and asked the police to handover all the details at the earliest to the victims.