Bengal's Baruipur horror triggers fresh battle as Mamata takes to streets again

The alleged rape and murder of a 12-year-old girl in West Bengal's Baruipur has spiralled into a full-blown political confrontation, with former chief minister Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the BJP accusing each other of exploiting the tragedy as Banerjee took to the streets after a fairly long interval to lead a candlelight march demanding justice on Monday, 6 July.

Holding a lit candle and flanked by senior party leaders and supporters, Banerjee led the procession from outside her Kalighat residence under the slogan, 'your voice, my voice — justice for Baruipur.' Protesters chanted 'we want justice' and 'justice for Baruipur' as the march wound through a section of south Kolkata.

The rally briefly ran into confrontation after police and Central security personnel placed barricades near the entrance to the lane leading from Banerjee's residence. TMC leaders alleged Central forces tried to stop the procession before supporters pushed past the barricades and continued along the planned route.

Before joining the march, Banerjee claimed she had wanted to visit the victim's family immediately after learning of the crime but had effectively been prevented from leaving her residence because of heavy security deployment.

"I had planned to visit the family alone. Instead, I found nearly a thousand personnel outside my home — police, CRPF and anti-rowdy squads. Whether they call it house arrest or not, this is exactly what it looks like," she said during a Facebook live session.

She said the Baruipur case had become a "turning point" after a string of crimes against women across the state, citing incidents in Bhagabanpur, Patashpur, Cooch Behar, Durgapur, Behala, Dinhata and Panihati.

The TMC maintained that Sunday's deployment outside Banerjee's residence was intended to stop her from travelling to Baruipur. By Monday morning, only her routine security cover remained.

The ruling BJP, meanwhile, accused the opposition party of attempting to politicise the tragedy. Chief minister Suvendu Adhikari said the government would pursue the harshest possible punishment against those accused in the rape and murder while also cracking down on the violence that erupted after the girl's body was recovered, in which one of the alleged suspects was lynched by an enraged mob.

"The chief minister will fulfil every request made by the father. I am glad the family has placed its trust in us," he declared.

Adhikari said the victim's family had named four suspects, adding that arrests had already been made and others were being questioned by the State Police Special Task Force (STF) and senior officers.

He also shifted attention to the unrest that followed the crime, warning that those involved in the alleged mob lynching, attacks on police personnel and damage to railway property would face stringent action.

"There was a communal angle behind the mob lynching. The way railway tracks were uprooted reminds me of the anti-CAA protests in 2019 and the recent protests over the Waqf Act," he said, claiming political parties "that had lost elections" were attempting to foment unrest, possibly given that the victim was Muslim and the alleged perpetrators Hindu, that too linked to the BJP.

Police have registered separate cases relating to the alleged rape and murder, the mob lynching, attacks on police personnel and disruption of railway services. Restrictions under Section 163 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita have also been imposed in parts of Baruipur, Narendrapur and Sonarpur.

The government's handling of the aftermath quickly became another political flashpoint. The TMC questioned why Adhikari did not visit the victim's family on Monday despite Baruipur being barely 25 km from Kolkata, instead attending programmes marking Syama Prasad Mukherjee's birth anniversary and inaugurating a BJP office.

"You found time for political programmes but not for a grieving family. Today politics came first, while justice had to wait," TMC leader Kunal Ghosh said.

Several opposition leaders also argued that the chief minister's repeated references to the communal angle and subsequent violence risked overshadowing the alleged rape and murder itself. "The government should be concentrating on securing justice for the 12-year-old victim, not making the protests the bigger story," one opposition leader said.

A Left leader voiced similar concerns, saying the repeated emphasis on the unrest raised fears that greater attention would be paid to prosecuting protesters than ensuring accountability in the murder case.

Amid the political exchanges, a TMC delegation led by Pratima Mondal, along with Bibhas Sardar, Biman Banerjee and Rajya Sabha MP Dola Sen, met the victim's family.

Mondal appealed to the chief minister "not to mislead the public through misinformation and propaganda", adding that the TMC had not made any statement that could incite communal tensions. "We all want peace and communal harmony," she said.

The 12-year-old went missing on Saturday after leaving home to buy food. Her body was recovered from a pond near her house the following morning. Her family has alleged that she was abducted by four men, raped and murdered before her body was dumped in the pond.

Three people — Prabhas Mondal, Dibakar Sardar and Anand Sardar, whom police describe as the prime accused — have so far been arrested.

Prabhas Mondal and Dibakar Sardar were remanded to police custody until 20 July after investigators told a Baruipur court that further forensic evidence had to be collected and there was a risk of evidence being destroyed. Anand Sardar, arrested later on Monday during a joint operation by the STF and the Baruipur Police District's special operations group, is scheduled to be produced before court on Tuesday.