West Bengal is in chaos after the rape and murder of an 11‑year‑old girl in Surjyapur village, Baruipur, a suburb of Kolkata.
The family reported the girl missing on a Saturday afternoon, but she never returned. A week later the authorities recovered a body from a pond, with a post‑mortem indicating drowning, leading to the belief she was alive when dumped.
Local residents claim police ignored their pleas, while CCTV footage linked the girl to a man named Prabhash Mondal. A mob captured Mondal and turned him over to the police, who later shot him in what officials call a “police encounter.”
The discovery sparked violent protests. A crowd vandalised roads, shops, and a railway station, killing a young man who was later declared innocent by Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari.
The state police has detained forty individuals and registered three cases, while a special investigation team has been formed at the request of the BJP‑led government. The case has become a political flashpoint, with opposition parties accusing the newly‑elected BJP leadership of failing to protect women.
Questions have been raised over the legality of the police encounter, with activists arguing that the killing violated the rule of law. The incident, amid rising concerns over women’s safety, threatens to erode public trust in the state’s governance.
