Baruipur meets death: CID to probe, family refuses to accept rape accused’s body

Wife of Prabhas Mondal, an 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 Baruipur, West Bengal, were performed by the local administration on Thursday (July 9, 2026) after his family refused to accept the body. Mondal was killed in a police encounter on Wednesday (July 8, 2026).

The investigation into the encounter has been handed over to the Crime Investigation Department (CID) of the West Bengal Police. According to police, Mondal allegedly wrested the officer’s service weapon, fired a single shot at the team and tried to flee while reconstructing the crime scene in the early hours of Wednesday (July 8, 2026).

His mother, Sandhya Mondal, refused to claim her son’s body, saying that he had borne the consequences of his actions. Mondal’s wife also refused to claim the body, claiming that she had suffered a lot of abuse from her husband.

Preliminary investigations indicated that Mondal kidnapped the girl and sexually assaulted her before throwing her in the pond. CCTV footage has also emerged showing him with the victim. Four people were arrested in connection with this crime. The others are Anand Sardar, Dibakar Sardar and Kabir Mollah.

The girl went missing on July 4, after which the family filed a missing person’s complaint. After the body was found, violence broke out in the area. The mob attacked police personnel, vandalized police vehicles and blocked roads and railway tracks.

Left, Congress criticizes the meeting

Many opposition leaders condemned the meeting, saying the Suvendu Adhikari-led Bharatiya Janata Party government is trying to emulate Yogi Adityanath’s model of governance in Uttar Pradesh.

However, while justifying the police action, BJP minister Dilip Ghosh slammed people who questioned the encounter. “People should throw eggs at intellectuals who are trying to defend criminals… The police will have the same freedom as in UP, 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 claimed that it was a “planned meeting”. “It was clearly designed to distract the public from systemic governance failures and the communal undertones of horrific crime and its aftermath,” he said.

CPI(ML) Liberation General Secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya saw “shadows of Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh” in the clash.

Congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said that “law of the jungle” had replaced the rule of law in Bengal. “You cannot get justice through the barrel of a rogue police firearm. The midnight encounter is simply a convenient tool to bury the truth and ensure that the ultimate perpetrators of this crime never face justice,” said the former Congress president, who visited Baruipur on Thursday.

Published – 09 Jul 2026 17:24 IST