Kolkata: Police on Tuesday gunned down one of the four accused in the Baruipur rape-murder case after he allegedly snatched one of their guns and fired at them. Prabash Mondal was shot at 12.45am, about 30 metres from the scene of the grisly crime in the Suryapur neighbourhood of Baruipur, when he was taken there for “a reconstruction of the crime”.Prabash was in police custody since his arrest on July 5. He became the first person in police custody to die in an “encounter” since the change of govt in Bengal this May. The last “encounter” death during the Trinamool regime occurred in Goalpokhor in North Dinajpur in 2025, when Sajjak Alam, an accused in a murder case, had tried to flee by firing at cops while he was being taken to jail from court.Sub-inspector Arghya Mondal of Baruipur police station, who shot Prabash in “self-defence”, had led the team that rescued the accused from a mob before arresting him on Sunday.Officers said six cops took Prabash from Baruipur police station to the crime scene early on Wednesday to reconstruct the sequence of events leading to the death of the girl. The team left around 12.15am and reached the crime scene, 10km from the police station, around 12.40am. The spot has Suryapur and Alipur villages on either side.Police said Prabash snatched the service revolver of Roni Sarkar, police circle in charge of Canning police station, and fired a bullet. In self-defence, Arghya Mondal, police circle in charge of Baruipur police station, shot two rounds at the accused.Prabash slumped to the ground and was declared dead when taken to Baruipur Sub-divisional Hospital.The two bullets reportedly hit Prabash below the chest. The body was identified by his mother Sandhya and wife Chapa before being sent for post-mortem. A large contingent of police and central force personnel was deployed on the hospital premises.Police issued a statement saying, “Just before initiating the re-construction of crime in the PO (place of occurrence) in Suryapur, Prabash Mondal snatched the arms of one police personnel and fired one round on our team and tried to run away from the spot. During return firing from police side, Prabash Mondal was injured and he was immediately shifted to Baruipur hospital where the attending doctor declared him dead.”A judicial probe has been ordered into the custodial death. A report has been sent to National Human Rights Commission. The state human rights body has asked the Baruipur police superintendent to send a report by July 22. Various rights organisations have raised questions about the incident, including the odd hour the police chose for the “reconstruction of the crime”.“As mentioned in the protocol, the gun that fired the shots that killed the accused will be sent for forensic tests. The officers’ versions will be recorded and cross-checked,” an officer said. The officers who accompanied Prabash faced multiple rounds of debriefing.
