Stuffed In Sack, Dumped In Pond When Still Alive
Police and central forces have been deployed due to tension in the Suryapur market area
Kolkata: The 12-year-old schoolgirl whose body was recovered from a local pond in Baruipur on Sunday was sexually abused, brutally tortured, packed into a sack and hurled into the waterbody when she was still alive, the autopsy report has indicated.The report says her private parts bore marks of horrific injuries, including burns, and the back of her head had a blunt injury caused either by a blow or by forcefully hitting it against a hard surface, leading to significant bleeding. The lungs contained muddy water, suggesting she was still breathing when dumped in the pond. The report lists excessive blood loss and suffocation from drowning as the likely causes of death. The time of death is believed to be Saturday night.The autopsy report prompted police to slap BNS sections for gang rape, murder, destruction of evidence, criminal conspiracy and Section 6 of Pocso against the three prime suspects — Ananda Sardar, Dibakar Sardar and Prabhas Mondal — all of whom were arrested on Monday. A fourth suspect, Indrajit Tanti, was lynched by a mob on Sunday. A six-member Special Investigation Team investigating the case has also detained three persons, one of whom is believed to have political connections.Locals and the victim’s kin claimed they caught Ananda and handed him over to cops on Sunday but he mysteriously went missing from the Suryapur police camp.Prabhas told cops Ananda hatched the plot to abduct the minor and demand Rs 50,000 as ransom from her father, and he handed over the girl to Dibakar. “Prabhas claimed Ananda tortured her the most and strangled her to death but he was not present at the time,” an officer said. Cops, however, suspect he is not telling the entire truth.Prabhas was seen walking with the girl in a CCTV footage at 4:10 pm on Saturday. He was the one who took locals and police to the pond, about a km from the victim’s home, on Sunday morning, where the body was found.Police on Monday produced Prabhas and Dibakar in Baruipur court, where no lawyer came forward to defend the duo. Both were sent to police custody for 14 days.The victim’s mother said she wants police to ensure the culprits are punished by death. “We want these devils to suffer the same way as my child suffered before dying. And we want them punished as soon as possible. Many such incidents have happened before. We never saw justice being served. Now a new govt is in office. We hope to get justice,” she said.In view of the lynching and arson that gripped Baruipur on Sunday, police on Monday clamped Section 163 of BNSS (previously Sec 144) across Baruipur, Sonarpur and Narendrapur police stations of Baruipur subdivision.Even as the probe into the rape-murder was on, another body was fished out from the same pond where the minor’s body was found. It was identified as that of Krishnakanta Haldar, 30, who was missing for the past three days. Police, however, ruled out any connection of this death with the rape-murder.
