One more arrested in Baruipur mob-lynching case, total arrests rise to 8

Kolkata, July 15 (IANS) One more person was arrested on Wednesday in connection with the lynching of a youth on July 5 at Baruipur in West Bengal’s South 24 Parganas district after the alleged rape and murder of a 12-year-old girl.

The arrested person has been identified as Sakim Lashkar. He will be presented at a district court in South 24 Parganas later in the day, and the public prosecutor will seek his police custody.

With the arrest of Lashkar, the total number of arrests in the case had increased to eight.

“Some more people have identified as directly involved in the lynching of 26-year-old Indrajit Tanti. They are absconding now, and the investigation team members are also trying to track them. In the coming days, there will be more arrests in connection with the mob lynching incident,” said an officer from Baruipur District Police under whose jurisdiction the crime scene comes.

Already, police have registered cases against the seven persons arrested earlier under relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023, relating to unlawful assembly, rioting, obstructing the work of a public servant, wilfully causing hurt to a public person and murder by lynching.

The same charges will be slapped on the person who was arrested on Wednesday morning.

Incidentally, Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari went to Baruipur last week and handed over a compensation cheque of Rs 25 lakh to the family members of the 26-year-old youth killed in a mob lynching, who had already been declared innocent in the case of the alleged rape and murder of the minor girl following investigation by the police.

The Chief Minister also announced the job of a civic volunteer in the state police for the elder brother of the victim and also said those who were rejected by the people in the recently concluded West Bengal Assembly polls were behind the mob-lynching conspiracy.

Three cases have been registered by the police in the Baruipur incident, and separate investigations are underway.

The first case is in relation to the alleged rape and murder of the minor girl. The second case is on the mob-lynching of the youth. The third case is about the massive violence in the area, where property like railway tracks and police vehicles were vandalised, and police personnel were attacked and injured. Already, 42 persons have been arrested in this connection.

In the first case, that is on the rape and murder of the minor girl, four persons have been arrested so far. One of them, Pravas Mondal, was killed in an encounter as he was trying to escape from police custody by snatching the firearm of an escorting cop.

–IANS

src/dpb