Samiul Sheikh and Prahlad Das were shot dead by police in alleged encounters within a day of each other in West Bengal. The deaths have raised questions about the law-and-order situation and extrajudicial killings in the state.
On August 28, Samiul Sheikh, the main accused in the murder of BJP worker Sujit Mondal, was shot dead in Murshidabad district while allegedly attempting to escape custody. According to a police officer, Sheikh and two other individuals were arrested after Mondal went missing on August 28. The police later recovered parts of Mondal’s body from a canal. The incident occurred when a team of the Criminal Investigation Department took Sheikh to the Old Dak Bungalow area in Samserganj to reconstruct the crime. During their return, Sheikh allegedly tried to escape, snatched a firearm from a police officer and opened fire at the team. He was injured in retaliatory firing and taken to hospital where he later died.
On Tuesday night, Prahlad Das, accused of raping and murdering a Class 11 student, was shot dead after allegedly snatching a firearm from the police and opening fire in Gaighata, North 24 Parganas. Das was arrested on Sunday, a day after the girl went missing. Her body was recovered the following day. He confessed to the crime during interrogation, according to the police.
The incidents have sparked concerns over law-and-order situation and extrajudicial killings in West Bengal. Opposition parties have questioned the practice, comparing it to alleged extrajudicial killings linked to Uttar Pradesh under Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.
Trinamool Congress MLA from former Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s faction Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay said that 'encounters' are a 'source of publicity'. He added that there ought to be a rule of law in the country. Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Mohammed Salim described the shootings as 'staged encounters' and raised concerns about the law-and-order situation in the state. Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury asked how the accused could allegedly seize police firearms in both incidents.
Meanwhile, BJP leader Dilip Ghosh said that the police sometimes have to take 'unpopular' steps to restore public trust.
Source:
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