Just 8 km from Baruipur Junction railway station in Kolkata’s suburban fringes, the brutal rape and murder of an 11-year-old Muslim girl in Surjapur village last week has taken a dramatic turn after a mob allegedly lynched one of the co-accused. Amid multiple versions of the developments on media, the midnight "encounter" of another prime accused by state police has raised even more questions.
For the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the rape-murder case is the first major test of governance since it came to power in the 2026 Assembly polls. Yet again, the incident has put the spotlight on gender-based violence in the state, which became a major poll issue against the then ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) government following the 2024 RG Kar rape-murder case.
It has also raised concerns over the BJP's alleged bid to communalise the incident—with Opposition leaders like Mamata Banerjee hitting the streets in protest.
When The Quint visited Surjapur, the village was swarming with security personnel and locals even as many, including panchayat members, are said to have left the village in the wake of the incident.
The Rape-Murder of a Minor
It all started on 4 July when the minor went missing.
According to the victim's grieving father, his daughter had left for a friend’s birthday party around 4:30 pm. When she didn’t return by 6:30 pm, the family began searching for her. They reported her missing at the local police station around 10 pm.
The victim's family members alleged to The Quint that the police took no action. Frustrated, they, along with some locals, scoured CCTV footage from nearby shops—and identified an accused, Prabhas Mondal, who was last seen with the missing girl.
Prabhas, who worked as a local rickshaw-puller, was a history-sheeter with alleged involvement in drug-related activities and bootlegging. He lived with his wife, son, and elderly parents in Surjapur.
In the wee hours of 5 July, he was detained by the Baruipur police after a mob reached his house. Under pressure from the mob, Prabhas led the locals and the police to the victim's body and revealed the names of co-accused—Anand Sardar, Dibakar Sardar, and “Bapi’s son Raja”—as complicit in the rape-murder case. As per reports, he alleged the minor may have been abducted as part of a traficking operation, and claimed he had been paid Rs 10,000 to lure the child to the other accused.
The victim’s father, locals, police, along with local BJP functionary Shantanu Mandal, jointly set up a search party. The girl's body was recovered from inside a sealed sack in a nearby pond at 5:30 am.
After that, things moved fast.
Acting on the names revealed by Prabhas, the crowd found Anand, Dibakar, and one Indrajit Mondal, erroneously presumed by the crowd to be "Raja", and handed them over to the police outpost in Baruipur. According to residents, however, the police outpost released the three accused soon after the same morning, following alleged pressure from Shantanu.
Shantanu, a former TMC worker, switched over to the BJP ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Following the party's May 4 win, he was promoted to the BJP Mandal president in Baruipur West. However, according to neighbours and locals, Shantanu was also a small-time strongman who worked as a land broker on the side, and was known to be linked to fraudulent land deals.
"Both Prabhas and Shantanu were with us at the time of the search," the victim's father said. "But after they pulled out my daughter’s body, I fainted. I don’t know what happened after that."
A Lynching and an Encounter
Baruipur, which had already been restive since the rape-murder, turned more tense following the alleged release of the accused. Crowds, consisting of hundreds of locals, took to the streets in protest, carrying out rail and road blockades.
The protests soon turned violent as the mob attacked police personnel and eventually reached the home of Indrajit. While the police had reportedly "re-arrested" Prabhas, Anand, and Dibakar, Indrajit was at home when the mob found him and beat him to death.
Indrajit’s father Ajit recounted: "Around 6 am, some people came and told us the police outpost was calling him. Indrajit went, but returned home, saying police had let him go because he hadn’t done anything. Around 8 am, while he was sleeping, a mob dragged him out and vandalised our home and surroundings."
Multiple videos of the incident depict a crowd of hundreds outside Indrajit's house. One of the videos shows Indrajit, whose hands were tied, being dragged out of his house. Police have identified several persons in relation to the case after surveying the videos, including the man seen dragging an injured Indrajit out.
According to Indrajit's family, his death seems to be the result of a case of mistaken identity. While the mob mistook the 36-year-old auto-rickshaw driver to be "Bapi's son Raja", as repeatedly named by Prabhas, the family confirmed to The Quint that Raja was, in fact, Indrajit's nephew. The latter was last seen by neighbours on 4 July.
Prime accused Prabhas, too, was then killed in a police encounter in the wee hours of 7 July.
At round 12:45 am, investigators took Prabhas to the crime scene for a reconstruction. According to police statements in the media, Prabhas tried to snatch the revolver of Canning Police Circle officer Ronny Sarkar and flee. When chased, he allegedly fired a round at the police. In self-defence, Baruipur’s Police Circle in-charge Arghya Mandal shot him dead using his service revolver.
So far, four people have been arrested for the rape-murder, including one Kabir Molla who was arrested on 8 July. Meanwhile, 35 persons have been arrested for the ensuing violence, culminating in the lynching of Indrajit. A case has been registered against them on charges including unlawful assembly, rioting, obstructing a public servant’s work, and murder by lynching.
Days after the lynching, Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari visited Indrajit's home. Declaring that the auto driver was "innocent", he promised his family justice for his "murder", as well as offered Rs 25 lakh as compensation.
'Shielding the Accused'
Amid the sordid saga of deaths, the role of Shantanu, the local BJP functionary, has been repeatedly highlighted by locals who accuse him of trying to shield Prabhas. The BJP, however, has denied these allegations, adding that Shantanu had indeed helped the investigation by identifying the accused as well as assisting in the recovery of the body.
Certain media reports also claim that Shantanu had personally escorted Prabhas to the Baruipur police station as he did not trust the local police outpost. An eyewitness told The Quint that at around 8:30 am, on 5 July, they saw Shantanu drag Prabhas down the street. Media reports corroborate the same, and videos of him with Prabhas have also surfaced.
Locals, speaking anonymously, however, state that when the enraged mob started beating Indrajit following the accused's release from the police outpost, a frightened Shantanu took Prabhas to Baruipur police station to save his own skin.
When The Quint visited Shantanu's home, it found the house vandalised and empty. Local residents said a mob attacked and damaged the property on 5 July. According to locals, Shantanu and his family have been away from the area since that day. Several residents The Quint spoke with questioned why the police had not taken him into custody for questioning.
Repeated attempts by The Quint to contact him were unsuccessful.
Senior advocate and former Communist Party of India (CPI(M)) MP Bikas Ranjan Bhattacharya told the media, "In the name of an 'encounter', they have eliminated the chief eyewitness and the key link to the crime."
On 8 July, the Association for Protection of Democratic Rights (APDR), a human rights group, attempted to march at College Street to protest the extrajudicial killing but was blocked by the police. APDR vice-president Ranjit Sur told The Quint, "This is a planned murder. The drug and human trafficking networks in this area cannot function without police patronage. Prabhas was revealing too much—so they staged this fake encounter to bury the truth."
Politics and Communal Undertones
The BJP camp has since reminded everyone of CM Adhikari’s pre-election vow: "I'll catch them in the morning, and by evening, they'll be finished."
When asked about the legal legitimacy of the encounter, BJP MLA and lawyer Kaustav Bagchi shrugged, "No point overthinking—whatever happened was right."
Meanwhile, many have accused Adhikari of giving the incident a communal twist.
Adhikari has said:
"Around 200 people have been identified for breaking police vehicles, uprooting rail tracks—each will be arrested. Not one will be spared. Those inciting from behind—politically rejected elements, radical forces—have also been identified, and the government will teach them a proper lesson."
Crtics allege that the the investigation is being used to harass locals. Advocate Hafizur Rahman, representing the protesters, claims "over 300 people have been charged"—most of them unidentified. "Police are arbitrarily arresting villagers," he told The Quint.
BJP leaders also blamed CPI(M) candidate Layek Ali—who had contested from Baruipur West in the last Assembly polls—for inciting the mob violence. The party has filed FIRs against Ali, former CPI(M) MP Sujan Chakraborty, and several others.
The Quint had also learned from sources that Ali reached Surjapur on a bike from Baruipur around 11 am. Claims, widely circulated on social media, alleged Anand Sardar had served as a CPI(M) polling agent in the 2026 elections. However, the CPI(M)'s state secretary publicly challenged the allegation at a press conference, describing it as "BJP propaganda".
Meanwhile, High Court lawyer and activist Enamul Islam questioned the official narrative, saying, "The prime accused, Prabhas, repeatedly mentioned someone named 'Raja', while local residents insist that 'Raja' is Indrajit."
Islam further alleged that those who lynched Indrajit were predominantly Muslims.
"CM Adhikari declared Indrajit innocent, even before the investigation had reached its conclusion, to send a political message targeting Muslims."Enamul Islam
The case, however, raises several key questions.
Why did the police delay taking action? Why was the entire case handled by the local police outpost instead of the Baruipur police station? How and why did the outpost police allegedly release the four accused on the morning of 5 July? Why did BJP leader Shantanu escort an accused to the police station?
When The Quint contacted officers at Baruipur police station for clarification, they refused to provide any information on the matter, stating the case was under investigation.
Lawyer Hafizur Rahman summed it up:
"Police negligence is what escalated this. The mob had handed the accused over to the police. If they hadn’t been released, there would have been no lynching and no rail blockade."
The government counsel at the Baruipur court declined to comment on the matter when The Quint reached out.
The region, at the moment, remains restive, especially as locals fear further action after Adhikari's visit. "We want justice for the minor who was brutally raped and murdered. If the lynching victim was 'innocent', perpetrators should be punished as well. But we don't want local people to be harassed," a resident said.
(Soumo Mondal is an independent journalist covering current affairs and politics in Kolkata, West Bengal.)