The alleged sexual assault of two four-year-old girls in Maharashtra’s Badlapur has sparked state-wide outrage with the accused, a staff member at the kindergarten, being arrested by police. Identified as 24-year-old Akshay Shinde, the main accused was employed as an attendant in the school where the incident was reported.
Who is Akshay Shinde?
Police said the accused had abused the two girls in the toilet of the school and was working as a cleaner on contract via a third-party company and was employed on August 1.
Akshay Shinde was arrested by police on August 17 after the girls’ parents formally lodged a complaint despite an initial delay in filing the FIR. A local court on Wednesday (August 21) extended his police custody till August 26 after hearing the matter. The accused was presented before a magistrate in Kalyan on Wednesday morning, within the district, under strict police security.
Akshay Shinde produced before court
The accused was produced before a magistrate at Kalyan amid tight police security and after his custody was extended, he was taken away by the police in a van.
Massive protests broke out across Badlapur after the incident triggered outrage among locals. In the wake of these developments, Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde stressed that schools should employ staff only after a thorough background check. Angry parents and local residents were demanding the death penalty for the accused during their protests.
Police stated that the incident came to light when the girls’ parents questioned them after they refused to go to school on August 14. One of the girls said that she was feeling a burning sensation near her private parts, and she also informed her parents that the same was happening to her friend. Then the parents called the parents of the other girl and on talking to them, it was found that they were being sexually abused.
Internet suspended in Badlapur
As precautionary measure, Internet services at Badlapur in Maharashtra's Thane district were suspended on Wednesday a day after a massive protest over alleged sexual abuse of two kindergarten girls, and 72 persons have been arrested in connection with the violence during the stir.
At least 17 city police personnel and around eight railway cops were injured in the incidents of stone-pelting at the railway station and other parts of Badlapur during the protest on Tuesday, officials told news agency PTI.
The entire Badlapur town virtually came to a standstill on Tuesday after thousands of protesters blocked railway tracks at the station and stormed the school building, where sexual abuse of two girls by the school sweeper took place last week.
