Tensions erupt in Indian state after 11-year-old raped and murdered

BBC:

The Indian state of West Bengal has been on the boil for the past few days over the rape and murder of an 11-year-old girl.

The body of the child was fished out from a pond on Sunday – a day after her family reported her missing.

The incident in Surjyapur village in Baruipur, on the outskirts of Kolkata, has triggered days of violent protests, a mob lynching and the police killing of one of the suspects. Three other men who have been arrested remain in custody.

Warning: This story contains details that some readers may find distressing.

The child’s rape and murder – and the subsequent killing of the suspect – has snowballed into a huge political row, with the opposition parties accusing the state’s newly-elected Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government of failing to protect women.

The BJP, which swept to power in West Bengal for the first time ever in May, has rejected the accusation. But the crime, barely two months after the win, couldn’t have come at a worse time as the party had campaigned heavily on the issue of making the state safe for women.

Analysts say one of the main reasons three-term chief minister Mamata Banerjee lost the election was growing concern over women’s safety and her government’s shoddy handling of the rape and murder of a junior doctor at a government hospital.

In the latest case, as more horrific details of the crime have emerged, questions have been raised about the role of the police, while a local politician from the governing party has become embroiled in the controversy.

Family members of the girl said they last saw her on Saturday afternoon when she went out to buy a birthday gift for a friend.

When she didn’t return home, they went to the police station at around 20:30 to seek help in finding her.

The family and villagers alleged that the police did not take their pleas seriously and said they would look into it the next day.

Desperate family members and villagers then themselves looked through the CCTV footage from nearby shops and spotted her walking with Prabhash Mondal – a local man who has since been killed by the police.

Early Sunday morning, a mob went to Mondal’s house, caught him and handed him over to the police.

A few hours later, a sack containing the girl’s body was pulled out from the pond, with media reports saying Mondal had led the police to the exact spot.

According to the post-mortem report, the cause of death is drowning, leading to claims that she was alive when she was dumped in the pond.