Five police officers have been found guilty by a magistrate's inquiry into Akshay Shinde's death while in custody. Shinde was one of the suspects in the sexual assault case at Badlapur school.

On Monday, the magistrate submitted the inquiry report to the Bombay High Court, which was hearing a petition from Shinde's father, Anna Shinde, who claimed his son was killed by the police in a fake encounter. In August 2024, Akshay Shinde, 24, was taken into custody on charges of sexually abusing two young girls in a Badlapur school toilet. He worked as a school attendant. Shinde was killed in a purported police firefight in September while being transported from the Taloja prison to be questioned. 

According to the authorities, he grabbed one of the officers' guns from the police van, started shooting, and was killed by retaliatory shots. According to the law, a magistrate inquiry is required when an accused person dies while in police custody. A division bench of Justices Revati Mohite Dere and Neela Gokhale reviewed the report. The bench stated that the magistrate had determined that five police officers in the van were responsible for the accused's death. 

The bench stated that in accordance with the law, the five police officers would now be the subject of a first information report (FIR), and an investigation would be conducted. The court asked public prosecutor Hiten Venegaonkar to let the bench know within two weeks which investigation agency would handle the case.