near Kolkata. The child went missing on Saturday afternoon while buying a birthdaygift 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 and villagers reviewed nearby CCTV footage, spotting the girl walking with a local man named Prabhash Mondal. On Sunday morning, a mob caught Mondal and handed him to police. Hours later, the girl's body was found in a pond inside a sack. The post-mortem revealed drowning, suggesting she was still alive when dumped.

The discovery 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 BJP state government of failing to protect women — a crucial 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.

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. They note a pattern where accused individuals are killed in police custody under similar circumstances, drawing parallels to the 2019 Hyderabad encounter case where four rape-murder suspects were killed by police. Meanwhile, a local BJP leader's home was attacked by a mob accusing him of protecting the suspects allegations he denies. (BBC)