Accused in Minor's Rape and Murder Case Dies in Police Encounter

Kolkata. The accused in the rape and murder case of a minor in the Baruipur police station area of Kolkata's southern suburbs has died in a police encounter. The deceased has been identified as Prabhas Mandal. 

The victim's relatives identified her after watching the CCTV footage. The case of rape and murder of the minor was made public in Suryapur. Her body was recovered from a local pond on July 5.

According to the police, late on Tuesday night, during the investigation, the accused Prabhas Mandal was taken near the pond to 'recreate the crime scene'. It is claimed that during this, he snatched a police service revolver and tried to escape, after which the police opened fire. The injured accused was taken to Baruipur Sub-divisional Hospital, where doctors declared him dead. The role of the police has been questioned since the incident became public. 

According to the preliminary post-mortem report, the minor's death appears to be due to drowning. Locals allege that the police did not take the initial complaint seriously and the girl's life could have been saved if action had been taken in time.

A local resident said, 'We had informed the police around 8:30 that night, but the police did not take the matter seriously. After receiving information from locals on Sunday morning, we checked the CCTV footage of the area and identified the accused ourselves and apprehended him.' 

The local claimed that the accused confessed his crime at the police station, and even when they recovered the body from the crime scene, the police did not take action. Meanwhile, a local leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Shantanu Mandal, has been accused of helping the accused escape. 

BJP leader Shantanu Mandal, however, denied the allegations against him. He told the media, 'After getting information about the incident, we went to the station in-charge and filed a complaint. After watching the CCTV footage, we identified a person carrying the minor. We apprehended him ourselves, and he confessed to the crime.'

The person the locals were calling the accused was Prabhas Mandal, who died in a police encounter between the night of July 7 and 8. However, the rape and murder charges against him were yet to be proven in court. 

Ranjit Sur, a central committee member of the Association for the Protection of Democratic Rights (APDR), raised questions, calling the incident suspicious. He said, 'This person was the most important witness in the entire case. After his death, the police can weave a story as per their convenience and hide their shortcomings.' 

He commented that the story of police encounters is the same in many states of the country, and the pattern of the accused snatching weapons and trying to escape and getting killed in an encounter is visible.

The mother of the accused Prabhas Mandal told news agency ANI, 'Two policemen came to my house. I had just woken up. They told me my son had died and asked if I wanted to go to the hospital. I said I couldn't go as my husband was ill.' 

She further said, 'Do whatever you want to do. I have no objection. My son got punished for what he did. I will not accept his body and will not bring it home. He did not do any good deeds. He made a mistake and was punished. Let them kill him or do whatever, I don't want his corpse.'

In recent years, many police encounter incidents have been reported in various states of India, where it was claimed that the accused snatched police weapons and tried to escape, leading to them being shot. One such famous incident occurred in Hyderabad in 2019, where four accused in the rape and murder of a veterinarian died in a police encounter. 

At that time too, the police claimed that the accused snatched weapons and tried to escape during the recreation of the crime scene. After that incident, Amnesty International issued a statement condemning it as 'extra-judicial killing'. 

According to the Uttar Pradesh Police, during Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's 9-year tenure, 17,043 police encounter incidents have been registered in the state, in which 289 criminals have died. The police stated that in most of these cases, the accused tried to snatch weapons and escape during the recreation of the crime scene.

This incident of rape and murder of a minor in the Baruipur area has created an atmosphere of outrage in West Bengal. Although the victim's relatives alleged rape before murder, the police initially did not register a rape case. 

However, after the preliminary post-mortem report, a rape case was registered under POCSO. According to relatives, the girl had been missing since Saturday, and tension escalated on Sunday when her body was found in a pond. Following the incident, an angry mob beat a youth to death on suspicion of murder. 

After the incident became public, TMC claimed that former Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was placed under house arrest when she tried to go to Baruipur, while BJP denied TMC's allegations. Baruipur police arrested one accused on Sunday, and later another person was also arrested. Three others have been taken into custody. 

The administration stated that a heavy police force has been deployed in the area as the situation is still tense, to prevent further unrest.