Bengal rape-murder accused killed in police encounter, his mother reacts
Prabhash Mondol, the main accused in the gangrape-murder of an 11-year-old in West Bengal’s Baruipur, was shot dead in an encounter after midnight. According to a police statement, a police team took Mondol to the crime scene last night to reconstruct the crime as part of the investigation. At the crime scene, police said, the accused snatched the firearm of a policeman, fired one shot at the police party and tried to escape. Police opened fire in retaliation. Mondol was injured in the firing and rushed to a hospital, where he was declared dead, the police statement said.
The Indian Express spoke to Prabhash’s mother, Sandhya, after the encounter that killed her son. “He got the punishment for the crime he committed,” she said. Sandhya Mondol said she had told police that she did not want to see her son’s body. “I grieve as a mother, but I am at peace that he got the punishment for his crime.” She said she would not even receive his body. “I don’t want to see him. No one will go. He did not listen to us,” she said, adding that Prabhash was an “addict”.
A town on edge
Located about 30 km from Kolkata, Baruipur in Bengal’s South 24 Parganas district has been on the edge after the body of an 11-year-old girl was found dumped in a pond on Sunday. An autopsy confirmed sexual assault and police registered a case under charges of murder and gangrape. The stringent Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act has also been invoked. Four people have been arrested in connection with the heinous crime and a six-member Special Investigation Team is probing the incident.
Three accused, Pravash Mondol, Ananda Sardar and Dibakar Sardar, were arrested earlier. Another accused, Kabir Mollah, was arrested in Basirhat, North 24 Parganas, on Tuesday night. According to police sources, Mollah fled Baruipur after the incident and was arrested after police got information that he was in Basirhat.
Earlier, in a chilling development, a man suspected of being involved in the heinous crime was lynched in Baruipur, hours after the 11-year-old’s body was found dumped in a pond. Protesters also blocked roads and set tyres on fire before police brought the situation under control.
A CCTV clue
According to police sources, CCTV footage from near the crime scene led to breakthrough in their investigation into the 11-year-old girl’s rape-murder. The footage showed the victim shortly before she went missing on Saturday. A day later, her body was found in a sack dumped in a pond. In the footage, Prabhash was seen accompanying her.
According to police, the accused abducted her. They then consumed alcohol or ganja near a pond and raped her. Later, they drowned her into a nearby pond. During the autopsy, doctors found water in her lungs, suggesting that she was alive when the accused put her into a sack and threw it in the pond.
What Chief Minister said
Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari visited Baruipur on Monday and met the victim’s family. He stressed that the family was satisfied with the progress of the police probe. “I am satisfied after talking to them, and I think they are also satisfied,” he said. Adhikari also said the man lynched on suspicion of being involved in the crime was innocent. “The youth killed in the mob lynching, Indrajit Mondal, was also innocent. This is what the police told me; these are not my words. He (Mondal) will also get justice. I have met his family members also,” he said.
The Chief Minister said the 200-odd people accused of damaging public property during a protest against the rape-murder had been identified and action will be taken against them. “All of them will be arrested. Not a single person will get respite,” he said. “Those who have instigated from behind, including those rejected by the people in the recent (assembly) elections, those who gained one seat from zero, and also some radical and anti-national forces, have been identified. The government will teach them a proper lesson,” Adhikari said.
The Chief Minister also responded to allegations that the police delayed the search for the girl after she went missing.
“When we filed a missing person complaint at Baruipur police station, it was around 9 pm on Saturday. Had the police started a search operation then, went through CCTV footage, my daughter could have been found alive,” the minor’s mother had told The Indian Express.
The Chief Minister said he has asked the state’s police chief to submit a report within 72 hours. “If there is any negligence regarding the time taken after the complaint was lodged, even if it is one per cent, action will be taken,” he told reporters. Police have so far arrested 20 people in connection with the violence during the protests.
Family members of the victim have said they were satisfied after the Chief Minister’s visit. “He listened to us and assured us of justice. We have requested him for a police outpost, and he promised us to look into it,” one of her relatives said.
