Badlapur school trustees linked to BJP, says Aaditya Thackeray; Ajit Pawar slams opposition for flip-flop on Akshay Shinde encounter

MUMBAI/PUNE/KOLHAPUR: A day after the Badlapur school sexual assault case accused was killed in an encounter, Shiv Sena (UBT) alleged it was a bid to divert attention and protect the big fish "who are the school trustees and are linked to the BJP". Sena (UBT) MLA Aaditya Thackeray said, "Where are the trustees of the Badlapur school? Why are they being protected by the BJP-Shinde regime? Who was the police station protecting?"
Sena (UBT) deputy leader Sushma Andhare on Tuesday called the encounter a state-sponsored killing and demanded a committee headed by a judge to conduct a probe."Shinde was a pervert and we wanted him hanged but after due judicial process. Govt bypassed that and killed him in an encounter," Andhare told the media in Pune.
BJP and Mahayuti hit back at the opposition, saying it must stand with the police and public opinion and not the accused.
Deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar said, "The opposition is like an earthworm, difficult to find out which way it will move. When the accused was arrested, the opposition demanded that he be hanged and now that he is dead, they are questioning govt," he said at a rally in Solapur on Tuesday.
He said he does not support what happened. "Police have said that the accused snatched the pistol and fired at them. If he was attacking the police, would you expect them to react? The cops fired in retaliation in which he was killed. A detailed inquiry will bring out the truth," Pawar said .
He added, "That man was so perverted that I cannot give details of his heinous crime. The case became a national issue and there was so much anger that people halted train services in Badlapur. At that time, the opposition blamed govt claiming that women are not safe in the state. They were the ones who wanted him hanged. Now that he is dead, they ask why he was killed. The opposition is politicising the incident."
Addressing a press conference at the BJP state headquarters on Tuesday, the party's city unit president Ashish Shelar said, "When the accused takes the gun, what must the police do? Shouldn't their empathy be towards the suffering child, and are they raising suspicion on the evidence received by the police machinery?"
Shiv Sena MP Naresh Mhaske too said, "They were initially insisting on delivering street justice by hanging him in public, and now when the police bravehearts retaliated in self-defence, the opposition leaders are criticising the state govt and trying to derive political mileage."
Meanwhile, Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut said, "When the accused was being taken away by the police, his hands were tied and his face was veiled. So what exactly happened? Who is Shinde-Fadnavis trying to save by making this up?"
NCP SP MLA Jitendra Awhad questioned how an accused, who would either have been handcuffed or had his face masked, could show such dexterity in snatching a gun from the police and then firing.
Congress MLC Satej Patil on Tuesday demanded DGP Rashmi Shukla reveal the sequence of events that led to the death.
Shelar attacked Uddhav Thackeray, asking why he was unable to speak against the accused. "For power, for votes, do not stand with the accused," he said.