The Opposition parties in Maharashtra criticised the state government after a man accused of having sexually abused two minor girls at a school in Badlapur died on Monday while being transferred from jail.

Congress leader and former Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan alleged that the man was killed in a “fake encounter” by the police to “save certain people”, The Indian Express reported. He also demanded the resignation of Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.

“All the claims being made through the police by the government that the accused opened fire on scores of policemen escorting him is simply laughable,” he said. Fadnavis was attempting to protect those who run the school, Chavan alleged.

“I have heard that those who run the school are closely associated with Fadnavis,” he said. “Therefore, he may have orchestrated this encounter to shield his associates.”

The police have alleged that the accused person, Akshay Shinde, snatched a police weapon and fired at security personnel while he was being transferred from Taloja Jail to Badlapur in a police vehicle. He injured a police officer and was shot in retaliatory firing. The police took him to a hospital where he died, according to the official account.

Akshay Shinde was being taken to Thane in connection with a separate case of sexual assault filed by his second wife in 2022, The Indian Express quoted an unidentified senior police officer as saying.

Akshay Shinde had allegedly sexually abused two minor girls on August 12 at their school in Badlapur, where he worked as a janitor. Four days later, one of the children reported the incident to her parents who approached the police.

The case sparked protests in Badlapur, with the Opposition accusing the police of delay in filing a first information report. Akshay Shinde was arrested on August 17 and booked under provisions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act and the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.

The family members of Akshay Shinde challenged the police’s claim that he was the first to open fire at an officer, PTI reported.

“It is wrong to say that he first snatched the gun of a policeman and fired at him, and later the police fired at him in self-defence,” Shinde’s mother and uncle said on Monday, according to PTI.

“The police got the confessional statement written by him under pressure to the effect that he has committed the crime,” they claimed. “What they got written from him, he only knows.”

Other Opposition members also alleged that the state government had bypassed due process.

Congress state chief Nana Patole alleged that Akshay Shinde’s death was an attempt to protect other individuals involved in the case. He said that the trustees of the school had not yet been arrested.

“Is there an attempt to save the absconding accused or to wrap up the case by encountering the main accused?” Patole asked on social media. “Has the police encountered the accused as a part of a senior-level effort to suppress the entire issue?”

The Congress leader also called for the matter to be investigated by a sitting judge of the Bombay High Court.

Sharad Pawar, the chief of Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar), said that the Mahayuti government had failed to hold the law as a deterrent against such crimes.

The Mahayuti coalition comprises the Shiv Sena faction led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party group.

“To ensure justice to the two small girls in the Badlapur case, the accused should have been executed as per the proper framework of law,” Sharad Pawar said on social media. “But the laxity shown by the home department while transferring the accused is suspicious. The truth of this incident should come out after a thorough probe.”

Supriya Sule, a leader of the Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party faction, also questioned the circumstances in which the accused had been killed.

“Delay in the filing of first information report first, and now the prime accused is killed in custody!” Sule said in a social media post. “This is an absolute breakdown of law enforcement and justice system. This is inexcusable, it deprives the people of Maharashtra of justice.”

Sushma Andhare, a spokesperson for the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena faction, questioned how Akshay Shinde could have snatched a revolver while in handcuffs, The Hindu reported.

“One must also think of the Hyderabad rape case and the encounter thereafter,” Andhare said. “The same justification of self-protection has been used here as well.”

Andhare said that while Akshay Shinde was “not a Mahatma” and should have “certainly been hanged”, the punishment should have been as per the law.

“The process of law was followed for the country’s enemy [Ajmal] Kasab as well,” she said. “Then the same process should have been used for Akshay Shinde too. It is likely that certain key information and evidence has been buried with Akshay Shinde now.”

Kasab was one of the terrorists involved in the 2008 Mumbai attack.

Eknath Shinde and Fadnavis dismissed the criticism, claiming that preliminary reports suggested that the police fired at the accused in self defence.

“This was the same Opposition which had sought that a cruel accused like him should be hanged,” Eknath Shinde said. “Someone did such a terrible act to the little girls. How can the Opposition take the side of such an accused?”

The chief minister reiterated that the accused had opened fire on the police personnel and had seriously injured an assistant police inspector.