The Baruipur rape case has taken a dramatic turn after Prabhas Mondal, one of the prime accused in the horrific rape and murder of a minor girl in West Bengal’s South 24 Parganas district, was killed in a police encounter in the early hours of Wednesday. The development comes just three days after the case triggered widespread outrage and violent protests across the state. According to police accounts, Mondal was taken by an investigating team to the crime scene in the Suryapur Haat area late Tuesday night for a crime-scene reconstruction exercise linked to the case registered at Baruipur police station. Officers said that during the exercise, the accused suddenly snatched a service weapon from an on-duty policeman and attempted to flee after firing a round at the police team. In response, the police team opened retaliatory fire in self-defence, in which Mondal sustained serious gunshot injuries and collapsed at the spot.
He was rushed to Baruipur Sub-Divisional Hospital, where doctors declared him dead on arrival following a medical examination. Police officials confirmed that the mandatory legal and procedural formalities following the encounter have since been initiated. The Baruipur rape case first came to light after the body of an 11-year-old Class 6 student was recovered from a pond in the Suryapur area under Dhapdhapi-II Gram Panchayat on July 5. The girl had left home the previous afternoon, telling her family she was going to buy a birthday gift for a friend, but never returned, prompting a missing person’s report to Baruipur police.
A preliminary autopsy confirmed that the child had been raped, showed signs of severe physical abuse including multiple bite marks, and had been strangled to death. The gruesome nature of the crime led to intense public anger, with residents blocking roads and railway tracks, torching tyres and clashing with police in the aftermath of the discovery.
Amid the unrest, a 26-year-old man named Indrajit Tanti, suspected by locals of involvement in the crime, was beaten to death by an angry mob before he could be handed over to police. Investigators later arrested Mondal along with another accused, identified as Anand (Ananda) Sardar, taking the total number of arrests in the case to at least three, while a Special Investigation Team and the West Bengal STF continued probing the involvement of other suspects.
The case also snowballed into a political flashpoint, with Trinamool Congress leaders, including Mamata Banerjee, holding a candlelight march demanding justice for the victim, while alleging that police had attempted to obstruct the protest. The state administration, meanwhile, has assured the victim’s family of strict action and invited them for a meeting to discuss the progress of the investigation.