Bengal in the small hours of Monday, witnessed yet another police encounter death when the police shot dead a rape and murder accused after he allegedly opened fire at the police team near the Bengal-Bihar border.
The encounter death — the fourth in six months of the present Suvendu Adhikari Government coming to power — took place near Gauri village off Raiganj the headquarters of North Dinajpur district.
The police fired in self-defence when Dilip Roy, the rape and murder accused, was trying to flee their dragnet, officials said, adding several shots were exchanged from both sides whence the police vehicle sustained damage from bullet shots, forcing the security personnel to open fire in retaliation.
Roy was later rushed to the Raiganj Medical Collage and Hospital in a critical condition before being declared brought dead.
Roy a known history-sheeter who had similar charges of rape and other offences against his name, has been at large since Thursday, when the mutilated body of the victim, a 13-year-old girl, was recovered from Kulik bird and wildlife sanctuary near Raiganj.
“We had been searching for the accused for the past four days. Acting on a tip-off, our team traced him in the early hours of Monday … The police team had gone to search for the accused when he tried to escape towards the neighbouring State … he also fired several rounds and the police had to fire back in self-defence, leading him to be critically injured … later he was declared dead in the hospital,” a senior official said, adding the girl had gone missing on November 3 after leaving her home on a bicycle in the afternoon. Her body was recovered two days later in a decomposed condition and without clothes.
The Monday encounter was fourth in the past six months, with the last two taking place as late as in October 27 and the first one reported in July this year. While prime accused Prabhas Mondal, an alleged rape and murder accused, was shot dead near Bruipur in South 24 Parganas in July when he was taken by a police party for reconstruction of the case on October 27, Prahlad Das, the alleged rapist and murderer of an 11-year-old girl, was shot dead in a similar fashion near Gaighata in North 24 Parganas.
On the same day, the third person, Samaul Haque, was shot dead by the police near Dhuliyan in Murshidabad also during an encounter. He was accused of murdering a BJP worker at Samserganj in the same district.
Meanwhile, Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari on Monday strongly defended the police action, saying the security forces were justified in defending themselves.
“The police have not been given their weapon to hide them in their pockets … they have been given the weapons to use them when in use … specially for self defence … you do not expect the police to throw rasogollas (sweetmeat) when facing bullets,” Adhikari who had spoken about his administration’s “neo normal” policy against rapists and murderers after the July encounter death said adding “the Government has given the police a free hand in certain cases … they will not have to wait for the orders of their seniors” and wondering whether the police were to give sweetmeat to the attackers when being fired at.