Suvendu Adhikari visits Baruipur following the rape and murder case.
By Jayanta Ghosal
One of the first major challenges for Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari after assuming office was the Baruipur rape and murder case. On Tuesday, he visited the Superintendent of Police’s office in Baruipur. The following day, July 8, another major development took place in the investigation.
According to the police, one of the accused, Parbhash Mondal, allegedly involved in the gang rape and murder, was killed during an encounter. The police claimed that while being taken for investigation, the accused allegedly tried to snatch a service revolver from security personnel, attempted to open fire, and tried to escape. In what the police described as an act of self-defence, officers fired at him, resulting in his death.
The police are investigating the rape and murder of an eleven-year-old girl. According to the preliminary investigation, one of the accused allegedly lured the child to the side of a pond, where she was assaulted by three men. Investigators are reconstructing the sequence of events with the help of CCTV footage and preliminary forensic evidence. They believe that after the assault, the unconscious victim was thrown into the pond.
The larger political question now is how Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari intends to handle the Baruipur case.
During Mamata Banerjee’s tenure as Chief Minister, the government was often accused of standing firmly behind the police whenever such incidents occurred, with little public acknowledgement of possible lapses by law enforcement. This time, however, Suvendu Adhikari has adopted a different approach. He told the media that if any negligence or misconduct by the police is found during the investigation, it will not be ignored and there will be no compromise. Any officer found guilty of dereliction of duty will face strict action.
This reflects what is often described as Rajdharma, the principle that the ruler’s foremost duty is to uphold justice without favour or prejudice. Earlier, the police were rarely subjected to such public accountability. Now, the investigation is being monitored at the Director General of Police level, and the Chief Minister himself stepped into the matter immediately after the incident.
This approach contrasts with Mamata Banerjee’s political journey, which made the real difference this time. During her years in the Opposition, she frequently led protests over incidents of rape and violence against women. She famously marched to the Writers’ Building with a deaf and mute survivor to highlight the issue and also raised the Tapasi Malik case as a symbol of her campaign against the then-government.
However, her approach changed after she became Chief Minister. In several high-profile cases, including the RG Kar incident, her initial responses attracted criticism. Statements questioning why women were out at night and the government’s decision to first defend the police and institutional authorities, created widespread public resentment. BJP leaders have repeatedly used those instances to highlight what they describe as the contrasting administrative styles of the two governments.
Former BJP state president Samik Bhattacharya had also argued that, during the previous regime, officials responsible for lapses were rarely held accountable and that very few people faced punishment for administrative failures.
This incident outlines several steps taken by Suvendu Adhikari in the Baruipur case that, according to him, distinguish his response.
- The chief minister personally visited the spot and met the victim’s family instead of relying only on official reports. He assured them that the investigation would be carried out without any compromise.
- He publicly declared that nobody involved in the crime would be spared and that the strongest possible punishment, including capital punishment wherever legally applicable, should be pursued.
- Suvendu Adhikari also visited the injured police personnel admitted to City Hospital. At the same time, he stated that the incident was not confined to the crime itself. According to him, communal tension and violence had also been triggered in the area, and he claimed that anti-national elements were involved and had already been identified by the authorities.
- He did not act alone. He visited Baruipur along with a BJP delegation and simultaneously sought reports from party MPs and MLAs regarding the developments. He directed the administration to submit a detailed report on the incident within 72 hours.
- He reiterated that negligence by even a single official would not be tolerated. A preliminary post-mortem report was submitted by Director General of Police Siddhanath Gupta, following which immediate administrative action was initiated. Siddhanath Gupta himself also visited the crime scene, while the Chief Minister’s 72-hour deadline increased pressure on the police machinery to expedite the investigation.
These steps created an impression that the government had moved swiftly and decisively. More importantly, the victim’s family publicly stated that they had confidence in the investigation after meeting the Chief Minister and receiving assurances from him. It has become a significant political and administrative achievement, arguing that Suvendu Adhikari continues to enjoy a considerable degree of public credibility.
Additionally, even before the Opposition could organise a sustained movement over the incident, the government had already taken visible administrative action.
Mamata Banerjee, meanwhile, sought permission from the Calcutta High Court to organise a protest march. The High Court granted permission while imposing several conditions regarding the route, timing and manner in which the rally could be conducted. Here is an interesting political irony: when Suvendu Adhikari was the Leader of the Opposition, similar permissions had once been granted to him for protest programmes. Today, after the change in government, Mamata Banerjee and the Trinamool Congress themselves had to approach the High Court and obtain judicial approval before holding their rally.
TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee leads a candle march to protest against the Baruipur case.
Politically, however, the protest did not create the statewide impact that the Opposition had anticipated. The expectation was that public anger would electrify the state and generate a large anti-government movement. Instead, the situation remained relatively calm, partly because Suvendu Adhikari is still in the political “honeymoon period” following his assumption of office as Chief Minister.
As a result, there has been no widespread public backlash against the new government. However, Suvendu Adhikari also acted immediately in a manner that Mamata Banerjee, according to her critics, failed to do during the RG Kar case. While the previous government was accused of initially defending the police and institutional authorities before reaching out to the victim’s family, Suvendu Adhikari first prioritised direct engagement with the family while simultaneously ordering swift administrative action.
The death of the main accused, Prabhash Mondal, in a police encounter has now shifted public attention from the rape case itself to the encounter and the questions surrounding it. Yet, politically, Suvendu Adhikari appears to have handled the situation with remarkable caution and precision.
He has spoken in measured words, avoiding unnecessary provocation, but a serious debate has nevertheless emerged around the issue of human rights. West Bengal has a long left-oriented political culture in which questions of state power, police action, and civil liberties are repeatedly raised. Many activists and political groups argue that encounter killings often become larger human rights issues and can attract national and even international scrutiny.
Sougata Roy of the Trinamool Congress has openly stated that killing a person in police firing cannot be supported. Adhir Chowdhury, while not directly accusing the police, has expressed doubts about the official version of the encounter and raised questions about how exactly the incident unfolded.
According to the police narrative, the accused was a drug-addicted and physically weak individual who had already confessed to the crime. He was taken to the spot for reconstruction of the case so that investigators could recreate how the crime had taken place. The official claim is that, during this process, he suddenly tried to snatch a revolver from central security personnel, attempted to fire, and then tried to flee. The police say they opened fire in self-defence, resulting in his death.
It is precisely this version of events that Opposition leaders are questioning. The Left and the Congress are trying to turn the encounter into a larger debate about police accountability and human rights.
However, the public mood appears to be moving in a different direction. For many ordinary people, the dominant emotion is not concern over the encounter but anger over the rape and murder itself. Even the mother of the accused reportedly said that, as a mother, she feels immense pain, but what her son did was a grave wrong, and he has received the punishment he deserved. She described it as ‘karmafal’—the consequence of his own actions.
The mother of another victim, Abhoya, also said that hearing such words gave her a sense of dignity and hope that the guilty would eventually be punished.
As a result, two parallel conversations are now taking place in Bengal. One is an intellectual and legal debate about encounter killings, state power, and human rights. The other is a deeply emotional public response focused on justice for the victim.
From a political-management perspective, Suvendu Adhikari seems to have succeeded in aligning himself with the second sentiment. Without making inflammatory statements, he has projected firmness, quick action, and empathy for the victim’s family. According to many observers, this has helped the BJP gain public support during the first phase of Suvendu Adhikari’s tenure as Chief Minister.
Nevertheless, the BJP’s central leadership, including Union Home Minister Amit Shah, is reportedly satisfied with the Chief Minister’s operational handling of the Baruipur incident.
This difference in administrative response has become one of the clearest distinctions between the political styles of Suvendu Adhikari and Mamata Banerjee.
