KOLKATA: A prime accused in the rape and murder of a minor in West Bengal’s Raiganj was shot dead by the police in Uttar Dinajpur district on Monday night. This is the fourth such encounter in the State in the last four months since the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government came to power.
Police have not yet officially confirmed the incident.
According to sources, the accused, Dilip Roy, had been fleeing since the decomposed body of the 13-year-old minor was recovered from the Kulik forest in the Raiganj area on Thursday (November 5, 2026). Dilip fled the area after his name got involved as a prime suspect in the rape and murder incident. Acting on a tip off, on Monday, in the early hours, police went to arrest him in the Gauri village area, from where he was trying to cross into Bihar.
Soon the police reached the spot, he opened fire at the cops. Dilip was killed in a retaliatory firing during the incident, said police.
He was rushed to the state-run Raiganj Medical College and Hospital where he was declared dead.
Bengal records two police encounters within 24 hours
In an unprecedented development in Bengal, two accused were killed in separate police encounters within 24 hours on October 27, with both incidents taking place during crime scene reconstruction.
In the second incident, an accused in the murder of Sujit Mondal was shot dead in Samserganj of Murshidabad district. Police took Samaun Sheikh, arrested two months ago in connection with Mondal’s murder in Dhuliyan, to the Old Dakbangla area under Samserganj police station for crime scene reconstruction.
According to police, Samaun allegedly snatched a service revolver from a police officer and opened fire while attempting to escape.
“The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) under West Bengal Police was probing the case. Today, the accused was brought to the spot for crime scene reconstruction. The shooting took place at that time. He was taken to Jangipur Sub-divisional Hospital where doctors declared him dead,” police sources in the district had said.
The Samserganj encounter came hours after another encounter in Gaighata of North 24 Parganas district shortly before midnight on October 27. Prahlad Das, the 23-year-old accused in the rape and murder of an adolescent girl, was shot dead after allegedly opening fire at policemen during crime scene reconstruction.
Police said Prahlad snatched a service revolver from a policeman and fired around three rounds at the personnel, injuring one of them. The police retaliated, claiming they had fired to protect themselves.
Prahlad was taken to Chandpara Rural Hospital, where he was declared dead. The encounter took place in Gaighata, where the girl's body, bearing multiple injury marks, was found near her residence.
With these two incidents, Bengal recorded its fourth police encounter, following the Baruipur incident in South 24 Parganas district, in which Prabhas Mondal, the key accused in the rape and murder of a minor girl in July, was also killed in a police encounter.