Tensions erupt in Indian state after an 11-year-old girl was raped and murdered in West Bengal, according to BBC and Times of Suriname. The incident in Surjyapur village in Baruipur, on the outskirts of Kolkata, has triggered days of violent protests, a mob lynching of an innocent man, and the police killing of one of the suspects.

Timeline of the Incident

The girl went missing on Saturday afternoon while buying a birthday gift for a friend. When she didn’t return. Her family reported her disappearance to police around 8:30 PM, but allege officers dismissed the complaint and told them to return the next day.

Desperate family members and villagers reviewed nearby CCTV footage and spotted the girl walking with a local man named Prabhash Mondal, but On Sunday morning, a mob caught Mondal and handed him to police. Hours later, the girl’s body was found in a sack inside a pond. A post-mortem revealed drowning as the cause of death, suggesting she was still alive when dumped.

Had the police acted earlier, she could have been saved, her relatives said.

Violent Protests and Political Fallout

The discovery of the body ignited violent protests. A mob vandalized roads, shops, and a railway station, and beat a young man to death — later declared innocent by the Chief Minister. Several police officers were injured. Authorities have since registered three cases, detained 40 people, imposed a ban on public gatherings, and deployed heavy paramilitary forces.

The crime has taken on political and religious dimensions. The victim was Muslim, while the arrested men are Hindu. Opposition parties accuse the newly-elected Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) state government of failing to protect women, a key issue as the BJP had campaigned heavily on women’s safety.

Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari visited the victim’s family, vowing to curb such incidents.

Controversy Surrounding the Police Encounter

Less than 24 hours after his arrest, Prabhash Mondal was killed in a police encounter. Police claim he tried to snatch a weapon and opened fire, forcing them to retaliate. Mondal’s mother disowned him, refusing to accept his body, saying “My son has been punished for what he did.”

However, opposition politicians and rights activists have questioned the encounter, calling it suspicious and against the rule of law. The police complaint has since been amended to include charges under the Pocso, India’s stringent law on child sexual abuse.