Chief minister Suvendu Adhikari claimed Indrajit Mondal, the auto-rickshaw driver lynched by a mob in Baruipur, South 24-Parganas’ Surjyapur on Sunday, was innocent.
“I am not the investigating authority. The police have told me that the young man Indrajit Mandal was innocent,” Adhikari said after a long-meeting with the state police top brass in Baruipur on Tuesday afternoon.
Adhikari met the family members of the 11-year-old girl raped and murdered in Surjyapur on Saturday night. The discovery of her mutilated corpse inside a sack lying in a pond a day later had sparked large-scale violence in the area.
Accused of being involved in the rape and murder of the 11-year old hours after she went missing on Saturday evening, Mondal was lynched when the mob suspected the accused, one of whom was handed over to the cops by the locals, was being let off.
During his visit to Baruipur, where he separately met the family members of the girl, the family members of Mondal and another family whose son was murdered on Monday night.
“I met the young man’s family. They will also get justice,” Adhikari said before leaving Baruipur. “Those involved in his lynching will not be spared.”
Adhikari held a meeting with the top brass of the state police including the director general of police Siddh Nath Gupta, other police officers including district superintendents of police and police commissioners, who attended the meet virtually.
“The missing diary was lodged at 11.15 pm. We have made a primary analysis (of the events). I have told the director general of police to complete the administrative formalities and submit a report within 72-hours. If any of the officers (present on duty on the day of the incident) are found even one per cent guilty of negligence, strict punishment will follow,” Adhikari said.
Adhikari said an outpost will be started immediately in Surjyapur, the village where the incident took place.
The girl went missing on Saturday evening and her body was found a day later in a pond. Post mortem revealed the girl was still alive, though unconscious, when her body was packed inside the sack and dropped into the pond.
The locals had claimed that the police did not start a thorough search for the girl immediately after the missing complaint was lodged.
Without naming the Trinamool Congress and the CPM, Adhikari said the mob was provoked by political forces to attack policemen and vehicles.
“Those rejected by the people, those who have moved from zero to one seat, radical and antinational forces provoked the crowd. Around 200 people involved in the attack have been identified. those who instigated them will also be traced and punished,” Adhikari said.
Former Bengal Assembly Speaker and Baruipur Paschim MLA Biman Bandyopadhyay and Jadavpur MP Saayoni Ghosh also met the chief minister in Baruipur.
Announcing a police outpost will be set up immediately in Surjyapur, the chief minister said he will return in a week’s time and apprise the family members of the progress made in the investigation.