When West Bengal ‘encountered’ a shot of Uttar Pradesh

Encounters have been reported from West Bengal in the past, with the accused attempting to escape while in custody. There was a case in January 2025 near the Chopra border in Uttar Dinajpur district where fugitive prisoner Sajjad Alam was shot by West Bengal police after he reportedly shot at police officers during a transit operation. This occurred during the Trinamool Congress's (TMC) regime.

Cut to July 2026, two months after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came into power in West Bengal. The first encounter under the new government made people sit up and take notice. Prabhas Mondal, the main accused in the Baruipur rape case involving the gang-rape and murder of a 14-year-old girl, was shot dead on the intervening night of July 7 and 8, a short distance away from where the gruesome sexual assault had occurred. Police said Mondal was shot during a crime reconstruction exercise where the accused snatched a revolver from a police officer and fired. Police retaliated and fired two bullets at Mondal in the chest and waist, which killed the accused.

However, what is striking about the encounter of main accused Mondal is the manner in which it happened, raising questions about whether this is the next Uttar Pradesh. Is this the Suvendu Adhikari government's way of sending out a strong message that crime will not be tolerated in his state, more so crimes against women? Is the BJP trying to send out a message that, unlike the TMC government that was seen as being soft on the accused in crimes against women, the saffron party is a no-nonsense government?

Opposition parties, including the TMC and the Left Front, are terming the nature of the encounter as a planned operation to eliminate the accused. They also stated that custodial deaths go against human rights and the law, where the accused should otherwise go through trial. For the victim's family, it is almost an immediate act of getting justice, a day after Adhikari visited Baruipur, spoke to the family, assured them of help and justice, and held meetings with the police force.

There was no grief for Mondal’s family, with the accused’s mother saying that her son had gone through the same torture that was meted out to the girl. The family even said they would not collect the body. Meanwhile, the three other accused are being questioned further by the police.

What is making it so hard for the people of Bengal to believe that it was an encounter for self-protection? Why is Uttar Pradesh coming to mind? Is this something that the people, including the opposition parties, had feared about the BJP government?

The BJP government maintains it was an encounter for self-protection by the police. What is hard for many to believe is why the main accused was taken for the crime reconstruction post-midnight. Why did it remind many of a similar encounter of Vikas Dubey in Kanpur, UP, in 2020? Dubey’s men had massacred eight policemen a few days before his arrest and encounter.

While the truth may never come out, or the truth simply is the police’s version in the Baruipur encounter, what comes to light is that things are changing in West Bengal. Whether or not the change is a shot in the arm for the government tackling crime in Adhikari’s state, the question lingering in the minds of many is, is West Bengal really going the UP 2.0 way?