Senior cop Sanjay Shinde, who shot dead accused, was part of encounter specialist’s team

MUMBAI: Senior inspector Sanjay Shinde, who shot dead Akshay Shinde, the arrested accused in the Badlapur sexual assaults case, in “self-defence”, had joined the Maharashtra Police in 1992 as a sub-inspector. In the past three decades, he has worked mostly in Mumbai and Thane.
Shinde has seen several ups and downs in his career while handling high-profile cases, and this isn’t the first time he’s been in the limelight.
In 2012, he was suspended after being accused of helping a high-profile murder case suspect, Vijay Palande, escape from the Mumbai crime branch’s custody. Palande was arrested in the murder case of Delhi-based businessman Arun Tikku and aspiring film producer Karan Kakkad. Palande’s sister is married to Shinde’s brother.
Shinde remained suspended for around two years before being posted to the local arms division in 2014. In 2017, he got a plum posting in the team of encounter specialist Pradeep Sharma, who was heading the anti-extortion cell of the Thane police. Shinde was part of the unit when it apprehended a high-profile accused, fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar’s brother Iqbal Kaskar, in an extortion case registered in Thane.
Presently with the Thane police’s crime branch, Shinde was also part of the state-appointed special investigation team (SIT) led by IPS officer Arti Singh, which probed the Badlapur sexual assaults case. After the encounter with Akshay Shinde, he was admitted to Jupiter Hospital in Thane after complaining of high blood pressure and chest pain.