The prime suspect in the rape and murder of the 12-year-old girl in Baruipur, who allegedly fled with help from a local BJP leader on Sunday, was arrested on Monday.
Police identified him as Ananda Sardar. He was picked up from his in-laws’ residence at Mullickpur in Baruipur.
Chief minister Suvendu Adhikari said on Monday that all those involved would be punished. “Four cases have been started. They will get the highest punishment. I have spoken to the family. We will ensure that whatever the family is asking for will be done,” he said.
Residents of Baruipur alleged that locals had searched for the girl through Saturday night and caught two of the accused, including Ananda, early on Sunday morning, but he managed to escape during the commotion that followed.
By Monday evening, three men had been arrested. The others were identified as Pravas Mondal and Dibakar Sardar.
The first breakthrough in identifying the accused, residents said, came from them rather than the police. Locals scanned CCTV footage from a nearby building on Saturday evening and tracked movements of the girl and suspected men.
“We scanned CCTV footage and saw her in one clip at 4.35pm. Then she was seen with a man in a red T-shirt near a school around 4.42pm. The man wore a cap, which made identification difficult. Later, we saw him speaking to another man whom we could identify,” said a resident involved in the search.
The house of the man identified from CCTV was traced past midnight, and with his help, locals narrowed down the suspect in the red T-shirt.
“This man was Pravas Mondal. When we reached his house around 3am, his wife and mother said he was not home. But a sound from inside made us suspicious. The police helped us then and entered the house. He was hiding in a corner,” the resident said.
Pravas initially tried to mislead the search team, claiming the girl was safe. “He said she had been given noodles to eat and named others, saying they had kidnapped her for money and that he was not involved,” another resident from the search team said. “Later, he admitted he was part of the group that abducted and assaulted her.”
Pravas later led the team to a water body, where the girl’s body was recovered from a gunny bag, sources said.
Based on his interrogation, locals said they got a lead on Ananda Sardar. He, too, was apprehended by the search team, but escaped after local BJP leader Santanu Mondal arrived, allegedly intervened and attempted to hand the suspects over to the police early on Sunday morning.
The police said the local outpost had only two constables when Santanu arrived with the accused, and Ananda fled amid the ensuing chaos as the crowd turned on the cops.
An officer-led team from Baruipur police station reached the spot around 10.30am on Sunday, nearly three hours after the body was recovered. By then, the situation had escalated, with mobs damaging public property and attacking police personnel.
One accused was lynched by a mob on Sunday.
Another accused, Dibakar Sardar, was arrested late on Sunday, followed by Ananda’s arrest on Monday morning.
The police have also examined Ananda’s call records and found calls between him and Dibakar on Sunday morning.
A six-member SIT has been formed to probe the case.
Following Sunday’s violence, restrictions under Section 163 of the BNSS were imposed on Monday in Sonarpur, Narendrapur and Baruipur police station areas.
Large deployments of police and central forces have been made in Baruipur to prevent unrest.