Baruipur encounter death: Last rites of man performed as family refuses to claim body

Kolkata, Jul 9 (PTI) West Bengal Police on Thursday said the last rites of Prabhas Mondal, an accused in the Baruipur rape-murder case, who was killed in an encounter, were performed after none of his family members came forward to claim the body. The cremation was carried out after all legal formalities were completed, a senior officer said. "The last rites were performed under the supervision of the local administration after completing all required formalities," he said. Mondal, one of the prime accused in the rape and murder of an 11-year-old girl in the Baruipur area in West Bengal's South 24 Parganas district, was killed in the encounter on Wednesday after he "snatched a firearm from a policeman and tried to escape from custody" during a crime scene reconstruction exercise, the police said. Prabhas' mother, Sandhya Mondal, refused to claim her son's body, saying he had met the consequences of his actions. "The little girl died after suffering immense pain. My son got what he deserved for what he did," she had told reporters after the police informed her about his death. The mother had also said neither she nor any member of the family would go to the Baruipur Sub-Divisional Hospital to claim the body. Prabhas' wife also declined to claim the body, alleging that she had endured a lot of abuse from her husband. The encounter -- the first such police action since the BJP government assumed office in the state in May -- came amid mounting public outrage over the crime, which had sparked violent protests and put the police under intense pressure. The accused was the first person arrested in the case and considered one of the key suspects after multiple CCTV footage purportedly showed him with the girl shortly before she had gone missing on July 4. The girl's body was recovered from a pond in the Surjyapur Haat area in Baruipur the next day. Locals alleged that she was raped and murdered before her body was stuffed into a sack and dumped in the water body. PTI BSM BDC