The key accused involved in the horrendous gang-rape and murder of a 12-year-old girl in West Bengal’s Baruipur was killed in a police encounter late Tuesday night, police sources reported on Wednesday. If sources are to be believed, the accused, Pravash Mondal, had been taken to the crime scene by the cops to reconstruct the sequence of events leading to the detestable incident, during which he tried to snatch a policeman's pistol and flee. 

Mondal was among the three accused who were arrested after the girl was found stuffed in a sack from a pond in Baruipur last week. Two other accused, as per police, have been identified as Ananda Sarkar and Dibarkar Sardar. As per sources, both of them had also confessed to the crime, while a fourth accused, identified as Kabir Mollah, was picked from Basirhat on Tuesday.

Protests erupt in Kolkata

Notably, Baruipur lies in state capital Kolkata, which saw a wave of aggressive protests after the rape victim girl’s body was discovered on Sunday. Enraged locals damaged railway tracks and police vehicles.

In a parallel development, 20 persons have been arrested in the aforementioned vandalism cases. According to police, the arrested accused were also involved in lynching a man named Indrajit Mondal, whom they suspected of raping and killing the girl. 

The arrests were made almost a day after the state’s Chief Minister (CM) Suvendu Adhikari met the family of the girl and the kin of the victim who was lynched in Baruipur. The CM said 200 persons had been identified for instigating violent protests. He added, “Not even a single person shall be spared. The government will teach them proper lessons.” 

Gang-rape, murder was planned: Cops

Earlier, the police issued a statement, through which, it came to light that the gang-rape and murder incident was a premeditated act. 

The police probe has revealed that Mondal was tasked with luring the girl to a secluded location where the two other suspects had been camping. Post-crime, they stuffed her into a sack and threw it in a pond.

The girl’s autopsy report had arrived on Monday, which revealed that she was alive when she had been thrown into the water body. It added that water filled into her lungs, and bite marks, coupled with injuries on private parts eventually resulted in her death. 

CM issues directives to cops

In the aftermath of the incident, CM Adhikari has directed the police in all districts of the state to take the strictest action possible to curb atrocities against girls and women. He directed the state’s Director General of Police (DGP), Siddh Nath Gupta, to submit a report within 72 hours detailing the events and the progress of the probe.