With the assistance of the Thane crime branch, the state-appointed special investigation team (SIT) detained two trustees of the school where the assaults occurred on Wednesday, a day after the Bombay high court questioned its inaction in not apprehending the other accused in the Badlapur sexual assault cases.
According to police, Uday Kotwal, the chairman of the school trust, 60, and Tushar Apte, the secretary, 57, were taken into custody by the crime branch in Karjat, Raigad district, and given over to the SIT. They said the couple would be presented before the special POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) court in Kalyan on Thursday.
On August 12 and 13, two four-year-old children were assaulted in the school by a cleaner named Akshay Shinde. The parents of the girls then reported the occurrences to the principal. The principal then notified Kotwal and Apte, but they failed to respond promptly and were subsequently charged in the two different FIRs filed at the Badlapur East police station. This is because, according to the POCSO respond of 2012, failing to disclose sexual assault on minors is a crime. Afterwards, the police discovered that the school’s CCTV footage from roughly mid-July to mid-August had been altered.
Kotwal and Apte argued in their pre-arrest bail pleas before the special POCSO court in Kalyan and the high court that they were unaware of the sexual assaults until the Badlapur East police contacted them for an investigation, and that there was no need to report them to the police at an earlier time.
On Monday, a division bench questioned the SIT’s decision not to arrest Kotwal and Apte, and a single-judge bench of Justice RN Laddha denied their requests for anticipatory relief. For the previous fifteen years, both accused have served on the school’s managing committee. The primary accused, Akshay Shinde, was allegedly employed at Apte’s family’s property, according to sources.
Officials stated that the SIT has asked the Thane crime branch to assist in the capture of the two trustees. Around 8:30 p.m., the crime branch police set up a trap and apprehended the trustees after learning that they were going to Karjat for work. Dynaneshwar Chavhan, joint CP of Thane police, stated, “Our team has arrested the two trustees and transferred them to the SIT for further investigation.”
In the second instance between the trustees and the principal on the claimed sexual assault of one of the girls, the two were booked. Sections 65(2), 74, 75, and 76 of the BNS as well as Sections 2, 4, 8, 10, and 21 of the POCSO Act were used to book the three of them. In this case, Kotwal and Apte sought pre-arrest bail from the Kalyan sessions court on August 30 but it got rejected. They later approached the high court.
Kotwal and Apte argued in the sessions court that they had taken prompt action when they learnt of the sexual assaults on the children on August 16, and therefore should not be subject to the charges against them. The court then requested the Investigating Officer (IO) to clarify the role of the trustees. After the IO reported that the police had found evidence of negligence by the school, the court rejected the anticipatory bail application (ABA). The duo then applied to the high court.
On October 1, the Bombay high court rejected their ABA and asked why the trustees had not been arrested yet. A bench comprising Justices Revati Mohite Dere and Prithviraj Chavan denied the pre-arrest bail pleas of Kotwal and Apte amidst widespread protests following the assaults. The court criticised the delay in action by the school authorities and the police after the families reported the incidents.
Advocate-General Dr Birendra Saraf stated that the police were actively opposing the trustees’ bail pleas and that charge sheets had been filed in both cases. The trustees remained at large while the primary offender, Akshay Shinde, was taken into custody on August 17 and subsequently slain by police in an alleged encounter. The opposition parties in Maharashtra have accused the government of shielding the trustees because of their purported affiliations with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.
The Badlapur police received complaints of the sexual assault on the two four-year-olds by Shinde, a cleaner at the school, on August 16. Just 15 days prior, Shinde was employed by the school trustees without undergoing a background investigation. When the parents reported the event to the school administration, they at first denied that anything had happened on school property. This led to a strong protest by the parents outside the school and on the railway tracks at Badlapur station, resulting in a 10-hour halt in train services.
