Mumbai/IBNS: The man accused of raping two nursery students in Badlapur near Mumbai died after he was shot at in a retaliatory firing when he attacked a cop inside a police vehicle on Monday evening.

According to reports, the rape accused Akshay Shinde had snatched the weapon from a constable and opened fire on one of the officers, injuring him.

The officers from Badlapur had gone to Taloja jail to take custody of Shindefor questioning him in connection with a new case filed by his first wife. The woman, who left him five days after their wedding, has accused him of rape and assault.

Around 6:30 pm, when the police team reached the Mumbra bypass, Shinde snatched the gun from a constable and fired several rounds, injuring him. In retaliation, another officer shot Shinde, leaving him critically injured.

He was taken to the hospital where he died.

Akshay Shinde, 23, was appointed on a contractual basis to clean school washrooms on August 1. Within days of his appointment, he allegedly raped the four-year-olds in the school's washroom.

He was arrested on August 17, five days after the children reported the assault to their parents.

The incident occurred in the wake of the horrific rape-murder of a junior doctor at a Kolkata hospital and triggered massive protests in the town of Thane.

Thousands had blocked railway lines for hours and had to be forcibly removed by the police.

The Bombay High Court, which had taken up the case on its own, had slammed the police investigation, especially pointing to its deviation from rules in the questioning of the children.

"The mandate of the law is not followed by Badlapur police," the judges had said.

"They attempted to record the victim girl's statements at the police station. There is complete non-compliance with the mandate. Asking the victim and her parents to come to the police station for recording statements is completely insensitive and against the law," they said.

The government later formed a Special Investigation Team (SIT) headed by senior IPS officer Arti Singh to probe the case.