A BJP legislator has publicly backed the police shooting that killed a man accused of raping and murdering a minor in Gaighata, North 24 Parganas, intensifying debate in West Bengal over encounters, criminal investigation and due process. Ratna Debnath, who has previously spoken about the death of her daughter in the RG Kar case, said she supported the encounter completely and argued that such action could create fear among offenders.
According to the police account reported by Anandabazar, the accused was taken to the site for a reconstruction of the crime. Police said he seized a firearm, opened fire and tried to escape. He was then killed in retaliatory firing. The report does not provide details of an independent inquiry, forensic findings or a judicial determination of the circumstances surrounding the shooting.
Debnath said the accused had been charged in a case involving the rape and murder of a minor. She acknowledged that the suspect’s mother may be suffering but argued that parents also had a responsibility to raise their children properly. She further said that people who treat women as commodities had no right to live and that the encounter would make offenders fearful.
The Gaighata incident is the second police encounter reported in West Bengal within four months in which a person accused of rape and murder died in police firing, according to the report. In July, the main accused in the rape and murder of a minor in Baruipur, South 24 Parganas, was killed in a police encounter. Police had similarly said that the accused had been taken for a reconstruction of the crime when he allegedly tried to flee after taking a weapon.
The repeated use of the reconstruction explanation places the focus on the safeguards that govern custodial movement, the handling of firearms and the investigation of deaths during police operations. The report, however, does not state whether the Gaighata shooting has been examined by an independent agency or whether a magisterial or judicial inquiry has been completed. It also does not identify any official response addressing those questions.
Debnath linked crimes such as rape and murder to intoxicating substances and called for all narcotic and intoxicating substances to be prohibited in the state. She said substance use was a major trigger for such offences and that tighter prohibition could reduce crime. The report contains no data establishing a direct relationship between substance use and the incidents under discussion.
The legislator also contrasted the previous government with the present administration while referring to the investigation into her daughter’s death. She said the earlier government had tried more to conceal crime than to apprehend offenders, and that the incident involving her daughter had not undergone a crime-scene reconstruction. She added that the investigation was progressing and that justice would be delivered.
The reported encounter and the MLA’s comments now leave the police account, the investigation into the Gaighata case and any formal inquiry into the shooting as the next points to be established. No further official action was cited in the report.
