Kolkata: In the early hours of July 8, Prabhas Mondal, one of the key accused in the rape and murder case of an 11-year-old in Bengal’s Surjyapur, was killed in police firing during what officers described as a crime-scene reconstruction exercise.According to the official narrative, Mondal had been taken to the crime scene at around 12:45 am when he allegedly snatched a firearm, fired one round at the police and tried to flee. The police, the officer said, fired in retaliation. Mondal was taken to Baruipur hospital, where he was declared dead. A member of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) confirmed to The Wire that the police fired two rounds. The first struck Mondal in the chest, and the second hit his leg. The sequence questions the self-defence narrative. If the objective was to neutralise a fleeing or struggling suspect, a disabling shot to the leg would theoretically come first. The reported injury pattern, one shot to the chest and another to the leg, requires a clear forensic explanation. The post-mortem report, ballistic analysis, firing distance, weapon recovery, cartridge evidence, and statements of all officers’ present should be made part of an independent inquiry before the self-defence claim is accepted at face value.The premise of conducting a crime scene reconstruction at close to 1 am, in pitch darkness, also has not been adequately explained by the police. It is standard modern practice for law enforcement officers to wear body cameras. Field reconstructions in sensitive cases are legally required to be video-recorded. Yet, the police have yet to produce a single second of footage showing the accused attempting to escape. At this stage, there is no DNA matching report, no detailed forensic report, and not even a basic chargesheet filed.So was Prabhas Mondal and what role did he play?Mondal was not merely a suspect but the linchpin of the entire investigation. Identified through CCTV footage walking with the victim shortly before her disappearance, he became the primary accused and was the first to be arrested on July 5. A local daily wage labourer who reportedly had a drug addiction, he was seen on viral videos narrating the sequence of events to locals, explicitly pointing out the exact location in the pond where the minor’s body was hidden.A purported interrogation video leaked by the opposition Trinamool Congress (TMC) on social media showed police casually discussing the case with him. In the clip, Mondal can purportedly be heard mentioning a third individual, ‘Raja’, whom he describes as a “party person”. The TMC claimed the footage revealed police discussing how to shield these politically connected individuals. The Wire could not independently verify the authenticity of the video.IMPORTANT 🚨In the horrific #Baruipur incident, POLICE APPEARS TO BE PARTICULARLY PROTECTING AN ACCUSED NAMED ‘RAJA’.Why? He is allegedly a @BJP4Bengal worker.Police, acting under the instructions of the ruling party, appear to be protecting the accused and deliberately… pic.twitter.com/1LGvFtzWlH— All India Trinamool Congress (@AITCofficial) July 7, 2026Mondal reportedly confessed that the main accused, Ananda Sardar, had promised him Rs 10,000 to lure the minor to a specific location. Investigators and senior officials The Wire spoke to have mentioned the possibility of a trafficking angle in the case. Mondal’s statement strongly points to a pre-planned abduction. Just as the investigation was poised to unravel this broader network, its most vital link was abruptly severed.The Uttar Pradesh model and the ‘end’ of the investigationThe sequence of events leading to Mondal’s death is a near-perfect replication of the Adityanath encounter model popularised in Uttar Pradesh. The public was informed of a midnight encounter that the media instantly championed under headlines screaming “Suvendu’s Justice!” as if the chief minister has been investigator, prosecutor, and judge rolled into one. BJP leaders in the state are openly hailing the encounter. State president Shamik Bhattacharya and spokesperson Debjit Sarkar have portrayed the killing as a strong message, dubbing it “divine justice”.India’s legal framework does not allow encounter deaths to be treated as celebratory closures. The Supreme Court’s guidelines require encounter deaths to be subjected to independent scrutiny. Following Mondal’s death, the most immediate casualty is the integrity of the investigation itself. Mondal was the primary suspect and the first to reportedly confess. His sudden elimination severs critical investigative leads, particularly concerning the suspected trafficking network tied to the crime. Dead men, after all, cannot testify or expose broader conspiracies.This is compounded by unexplained inconsistencies in police conduct. The authorities maintain that Ananda Sardar, another prime accused, managed to simply flee from a heavily guarded police station before being apprehended the next day, a claim that stretches believability to its breaking point.The erosion of institutional integrity raises questions about executive commentary during a live investigation. In the chaotic aftermath of the crime’s discovery, a localised mob lynched a youth on suspicion of his involvement. While mob justice is an abhorrent crime, the chief minister unilaterally declared the lynched man entirely innocent on Tuesday, long before any formal forensic or police investigation had concluded.In this image received on July 7, 2026, West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari interacts with a police personnel, who got injured in a mob lynching incident on Sunday, when the mortal remains of an 11-year-old girl were found in Baruipur, followed by an alleged gangrape and murder case, in Kolkata. Photo: PTI.CM penalises protesters and oppositionSimultaneously, the state apparatus is being aggressively weaponised against dissent. Adhikari announced that 200 protesters have been identified via video footage, resulting in immediate arrests and the booking of opposition leaders for allegedly inciting violence. It remains to be seen whether the administration will leverage its draconian new state acts to incarcerate these political figures, effectively blurring the line between maintaining public order and silencing opposition voices.Perhaps the most cynical manipulation of this tragedy is the attempt to manufacture a communal narrative out of a localised, spontaneous outpouring of public grief. The facts of the case inherently resist this framing. The child victim, who belonged to the Muslim community, was abducted while going out to buy a birthday gift for her Hindu friend. There was zero underlying communal friction in the incident. Yet, the chief minister explicitly compared the local unrest to the violence seen during the agitation against the Citizenship Amendment Act and Waqf board laws, repurposing a local tragedy to fit a broader ideological narrative.What the Baruipur incident has birthed is the terrifying architecture of a police state. The frantic political push for instant retribution exposes a fundamental flaw in the state’s approach to the criminal justice system. The demand for justice in the rape-murder case is urgent and legitimate. In a case already marked by public rage, political pressure, mob violence and allegations of a wider criminal network, the death of a central accused in police custody raises questions that the West Bengal government must answer with evidence.The immediate test for the state is not whether it can project toughness, but whether it can submit its own police action to independent scrutiny. A system that bypasses trial in the name of public anger may satisfy the moment, but it weakens the very rule of law on which victims, accused persons, and citizens ultimately depend.With inputs from Anwesha Banerjee