Kolkata:
According to police, Mondal was taken to Suryapur, near the pond where the victim’s body had been recovered, for a reconstruction of the crime at around 12.45 am. Just before the reconstruction began, he allegedly snatched a police officer’s service weapon, fired at the team and tried to flee. Police retaliated with two rounds, hitting him in the chest and waist. He was rushed to Baruipur Hospital, where doctors declared him dead.
In a striking response, Mondal’s mother, Sandhya, refused to accept her son’s body. “He got what he deserved for what he did,” she told reporters, adding that she would not claim the body and that no one in the family would either. She also said her son had long been addicted to intoxicants and had never heeded her advice.
The killing has triggered a sharp political clash. Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari’s government has drawn praise from within the BJP, with leaders defending the encounter as “strong action” and even “divine justice”.
The Trinamool Congress, however, denounced it as the start of what MP Mahua Moitra called “Bengal-Uttar Pradesh 2.0”. Writing on X, she said the BJP-led administration was running “no government. This is jungle law.” Moitra also questioned why Mondal — the only eyewitness who had led police to the body — was killed before he could name others allegedly involved.
Senior TMC leader Saugata Roy drew a similar parallel, saying encounter deaths reminiscent of Uttar Pradesh under Yogi Adityanath had now begun in Bengal. Calling it “Suvendu Adhikari’s contribution”, he demanded a report and an end to such incidents. CPI(M) leader Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya alleged the encounter was planned to divert attention from other issues facing the BJP government, and suggested it was acquiring a communal dimension.
Rights activists questioned the Chief Minister’s earlier remarks, arguing that Adhikari’s public call for capital punishment for the guilty may have signalled encouragement to the police. They demanded an independent probe.
The case has already convulsed Baruipur once before. Residents blocked the Baruipur-Joynagar road, burned tyres and damaged police vehicles after the murder came to light. A bystander was also beaten to death by a mob on suspicion of involvement — a man the Chief Minister has since declared innocent.
Adhikari has directed Director General of Police Siddh Nath Gupta to submit a report on the case within 72 hours, and said action would follow against nearly 200 people identified for vandalising property and police vehicles during the protests. Police have separately arrested another accused, Kabir Molla, from Basirhat.
