Kolkata, 09 November (H.S.) : Dilip Roy, the prime accused in the abduction, rape, and brutal murder of a 12-year-old girl in Raiganj, was gunned down by the police in an encounter early Monday morning. Investigators had been conducting an intensive search for him over the past four days. This marks the fourth police encounter since the formation of the new government in the state.

However, unlike the previous three incidents in Baruipur, Gaighata, and Samserganj, where the accused were killed while attempting to flee police custody after their arrest, the accused in the Raiganj case was shot dead prior to his apprehension.

According to available information, the 12-year-old girl from Raiganj had left her home on her bicycle on the evening of last Tuesday (November 03), after which she mysteriously went missing. Following a complaint by her family, the police launched a massive search operation. Two days later, on Friday, the minor's naked and mutilated body was recovered from the nearby Kulik forest. The family members had leveled serious allegations of abduction followed by rape and murder. The police were also investigating the possibility of a gang rape and whether others were involved in this heinous crime.

The police had been relentlessly pursuing the main accused. On Sunday night, investigators received a tip-off that Roy was hiding in the Gouri Gram Panchayat area of Raiganj and was planning to flee to another state via the Bihar border. Acting on this intelligence, a special police team raided the area at around 3 AM. Police sources claim that at dawn, as the team approached his hideout, Roy opened fire upon seeing them. A bullet fired by the accused struck a tire of the police vehicle. In retaliation and self-defense, the police returned fire, killing Roy on the spot. The body of the deceased accused has currently been kept at the morgue of the Raiganj Medical College and Hospital for a post-mortem examination.

This is the fourth encounter in West Bengal since the incumbent BJP government came to power. The first incident occurred in Baruipur, South 24 Parganas, where Prabhas Mondal, accused of the rape and murder of a teenage girl, was killed while trying to escape after snatching a police firearm during a crime scene recreation. The second encounter took place in Gaighata, North 24 Parganas, where an arrested individual, Prahlad Das, was killed while attempting to flee. On the same day, Samaul Hoque, an accused in the murder of a BJP worker in Samserganj, Murshidabad, was also killed in a police encounter. The Raiganj incident now marks the fourth in this sequence.

Reacting to the development, state minister Dilip Ghosh delivered a clear message, stating that if anyone takes the law into their own hands or breaks it, they will have to face the police. He added that law enforcement agencies would be compelled to take stringent action in such situations, and therefore, everyone must function strictly within the ambit of the law.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Satya Prakash Singh