Kolkata, 15 September (H.S.): The Calcutta High Court on Tuesday directed the authorities to preserve CCTV footage related to the site of the encounter in which Prabhas Mondal was killed in West Bengal’s Baruipur. The court also directed the investigating agency to expedite the probe and complete it at the earliest.

A division bench comprising Justice Arijit Banerjee and Justice Ritabrata Kumar Mitra was hearing the case when it directed that all CCTV footage connected with the incident be preserved. The court said the matter would be heard again after three weeks and asked the authorities to make efforts to complete the investigation by then.

The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the state police is probing the Baruipur encounter case. During Tuesday’s hearing, the state government informed the court that the relevant CCTV footage had already been preserved.

The case is linked to the murder of a minor girl in the Suryapur area of Baruipur. The girl had gone missing in July, following which her body was recovered from a local pond, stuffed inside a sack. Tension subsequently spread in the area, with allegations that the minor had been raped before being murdered.

Police arrested Prabhas Mondal, Dibakar Sardar, Anand Sardar and Kabir Molla in connection with the case. Mondal was the first to be arrested. According to the police, he had identified the location where the minor’s body had allegedly been dumped. Anand and Dibakar were subsequently arrested, while Kabir was apprehended later.

On the night of July 7, police took Mondal to the spot for reconstruction of the crime. According to the police, Mondal snatched a service revolver from a police personnel and attempted to flee before opening fire at the police. The police then retaliated in self-defence.

Police said Arghya Mondal, the police station’s Police Circle Inspector-in-Charge, fired at Prabhas Mondal with his service revolver to protect himself and his colleagues.

The encounter subsequently came under scrutiny amid several questions over the circumstances of Mondal’s death, following which the investigation was handed over to the state police’s CID. The High Court is now monitoring the progress of the investigation.

Hindusthan Samachar / Satya Prakash Singh