Dwaipayan Ghosh & Sarthak GangulyKolkata/Baruipur: Baruipur rape-murder accused Prabash Mondal, 38, was shot twice from close range while fleeing, with both bullets entering through the back and exiting the body, his autopsy report has indicated. One bullet pierced Mondal’s right lung before exiting, while the other exited near the right kidney.No bullet or bullet fragments were found in the body, an investigating officer said.The state health department constituted a three-member medical board to conduct the autopsy in compliance with guidelines of the National Human Rights Commission.On Thursday, the govt handed over the encounter probe to CID, whose investigation will run parallel to the judicial proceedings initiated on Wednesday. An FIR has been lodged at Baruipur police station over the firing. NHRC rules stipulate that a senior officer, excluding those involved in the shootout, will head the probe.“The CID probe will establish if the firing was indeed required for self-protection. All six cops who took Prabash to Surjapur in the wee hours of Wednesday for a reconstruction of the 12-year-old schoolgirl’s rape-murder will record their statements before the CID team,” an officer said. None from the encounter team will be placed under temporary suspension, a senior Bengal Police officer confirmed.During debriefing, sub-Inspector Argha Mondal told his seniors that Prabash suddenly snatched the revolver of Canning police circle-in charge Roni Sarkar from his waist and tried to flee across the marshland. Police officers chased him, but Prabash allegedly fired one round at the cops. To protect himself and his colleagues, Mondal fired at Prabash with his service revolver.The six cops also claimed that they did not wish to take the accused to Surjapur during daytime as a lynching had already claimed an innocent life there and “tempers were still frayed”. They said since the rape-murder took place at night, they wanted to figure out the movement of the accused.On Thursday morning, a CID team visited the encounter spot. “We completed mapping of the spot. The spent cartridges have been sent for ballistic testing along with the weapons. We are waiting for the full post-mortem report to ascertain if it aligns with our findings from the field,” said an officer.The fourth rape-murder accused, Kabir Molla, was produced before a local Baruipur court on Thursday. Special public prosecutor Bivas Chatterjee claimed Molla was “as directly involved in the crime” as Ananda Sardar and Dibakar Sardar, the other two in custody for the crime. The court remanded Molla in police custody till July 20.
