Wife of Prabhas Mondal, the accused in the Baruipur rape and murder case, who was killed in a police encounter.
| Photo Credit: ANI
The last rites of Prabhas Mondal, one of the accused in the sexual assault and murder of a 12-year-old girl in West Bengal’s Baruipur, were performed on Thursday (July 9, 2026) by the local administration after his family refused to accept the body. Mondal was killed in a police encounter on Wednesday (July 8, 2026).
The investigation of the encounter was handed over to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the West Bengal police. According to police, Mondal had allegedly snatched the service weapon of a police officer, fired one round at the team, and attempted to flee during reconstruction of the crime scene in the early hours of Wednesday (July 8, 2026).
His mother, Sandhya Mondal, refused to claim her son’s body, saying he had met the consequences of his actions. Mondal’s wife also declined to take the body, alleging that she had endured a lot of abuse from her husband.
Preliminary investigation suggested that Mondal had abducted the girl and sexually assaulted her before throwing her into a pond. CCTV footage showing him with the victim has also surfaced. Four persons had been arrested in connection with the crime. The others are Anand Sardar, Dibakar Sardar, and Kabir Mollah.
The girl had gone missing on July 4, following which the family filed a missing person complaint. After the body was recovered, violence erupted in the area. A mob attacked police personnel, vandalised police vehicles, and blocked roads and railway tracks.
Left, Congress criticise encounter
Many Opposition leaders slammed the encounter, saying the Bharatiya Janata Party government led by Suvendu Adhikari was trying to imitate the Yogi Adityanath model of governance in Uttar Pradesh.
But BJP Minister Dilip Ghosh, while justifying the police action, criticised people who questioned the encounter. “People should throw eggs at the intellectuals who are trying to defend the criminals… Police will have the same freedom as in U.P., Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, and Assam. There will be zero tolerance for crime and criminals,” he said.
Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharyya alleged it was a “planned encounter”. “It was clearly designed to divert public attention from systemic governance failures and communal undertones of the grisly crime and its aftermath,” he said.
CPI(ML) Liberation general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya saw “shadows of Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh” in the encounter.
Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said the “law of the jungle” has replaced the rule of law in Bengal. “You cannot deliver justice through the barrel of a rogue police firearm. A midnight encounter is simply a convenient tool to bury the truth and ensure that the ultimate handlers of this crime never stand trial,” said the former Congress State president who visited Baruipur on Thursday.
Published – July 09, 2026 05:24 pm IST
