Kolkata, Nov 9 — Police in West Bengal's North Dinajpur district are investigating how Dilip Roy, the prime accused in the rape and murder of a 12-year-old girl in Raiganj, obtained a sophisticated 9 mm pistol that he allegedly used to fire at policemen before being killed in an encounter.
According to district police officials, a team of cops tracked Roy to his hideout at Gauri Gram Panchayat in Raiganj on the intervening night of Sunday and Monday. Sensing the police presence, Roy allegedly opened indiscriminate fire with the pistol, targeting the officers.
While no policeman was injured in the incident, a bullet reportedly punctured the tyre of a police vehicle.
Initially, the district police officer said Roy tried to flee to the West Bengal-Bihar border, located close to his hideout. As officers chased him, he suddenly brought out the 9 mm pistol and started firing indiscriminately, targeting the cops.
The on-duty policemen, according to him, then had no other option but to resort to counter-firing, in which the accused was killed. He was rushed to the Raiganj Medical College & Hospital, where he was declared dead.
“The police had already cordoned off the place of encounter. There are blood stains there. Now, the question is, from where Roy procured this sophisticated 9 mm pistol. Our men are investigating this. The question is also whether he procured that pistol after committing the crime of rape & murder or it was in his possession before that,” the district police officer said.
The case relates to the disappearance of a 12-year-old girl from Raiganj on November 3. Her decomposed body was recovered two days later from the nearby Kulik forest. Family members alleged rape and murder, and the postmortem examination subsequently confirmed sexual assault before the killing.
The Raiganj incident is the fourth police encounter reported in West Bengal since July, with three of the four cases linked to allegations of rape and murder of minors.
First, in July, Prabhas Mondal, accused of raping and murdering a six-year-old girl in Baruipur in South 24 Parganas, was shot dead by the police in an encounter. It was claimed by the police then that he was taken to the scene of the crime to reconstruct the crime scene. From there, he snatched the police's gun and opened fire. The police resorted to counter-firing in self-defence, killing the accused.
After that, in October, Prahlad Das, who was accused in the rape & murder of a 17-year-old minor girl at Gaighata in South 24 Parganas district, was killed in a similar encounter following retaliatory firing by the police. In this case too, it was alleged that the accused tried to escape while reenacting the incident.
On the same day, Samiul Sheikh, who was arrested for murdering a BJP worker in Samserganj in Murshidabad district, was killed in an encounter. The Raiganj incident is the fourth on the list of encounters since July.