The Calcutta High Court on Tuesday ordered the West Bengal government to submit a detailed affidavit within two weeks regarding the ongoing inquiry into the fatal police shooting of a suspect linked to the rape and murder of an 11-year-old girl in Baruipur.
A division bench comprising Justice Arijit Banerjee and Justice Reetobroto Kumar Mitra also instructed law enforcement authorities to secure and preserve all evidence, including CCTV footage, connected to the shooting. The directives came during proceedings on a public interest litigation petition seeking an impartial investigation into the encounter. The court granted the petitioner one week to file a counter-affidavit following the state’s submission and scheduled the next hearing for three weeks from Tuesday.
The deceased suspect, Prabhas Mondal, was killed on July 8 while in police custody at the crime scene. According to police accounts, investigators had transported Mondal to the location to reconstruct the crime when he seized an officer’s service firearm, discharged a shot, and attempted to escape, prompting personnel to shoot him in retaliatory fire.
Mondal was one of the accused in the death of an 11-year-old girl who went missing on July 4 after leaving home to purchase a birthday gift for a friend. Her body was retrieved the following day from a local pond, concealed inside a sack. Police subsequently confirmed that the child had been subjected to rape before being killed.
