Baruipur: Hours after chief minister Suvendu Adhikari called the death of 35-year-old Indrajit Mondal as pre-meditated murder, Baruipur cops have intensified their probe into the lynching incident with the arrest of three more accused in a span of less than 24 hours.With this, the total number of people arrested for the lynching has risen to seven.The arrested individuals have been identified as Faruk Sardar, Rajesh Sardar, Shariful Mallick, Sabiuddin Baidya, Farid Sheikh, Abu Siddik Sardar and Shamim Ali Khan.According to police, the total number of arrests made for arson, rioting, and vandalism during the violent protests following the incident also surged to 40 on Sunday.One of the latest arrested suspects, Shamim Ali Khan, was allegedly spotted in a video dragging an injured and bound Mondal. Khan was tracked down and arrested from the Duttabad area of Salt Lake, where he had been hiding out to evade the police. He was allegedly seen in a video dragging an injured Mondal, whose hands were also tied. “He is a key suspect who has now been arrested,” claimed a police source.Cops also claimed they now have documentary evidence that Mondal was entirely innocent and had absolutely no involvement in the 12-year-old’s rape and death.Investigators zeroed in on the key suspects after examining multiple video clips recorded by onlookers during the mob violence besides analyzing CCTV footage and mobile dump records.Cops said they produced the newly arrested suspects in the district court on Sunday and that they will be questioned together to try and decipher the “larger motive”. A case has already been registered against the lynch accused under severe legal sections, including unlawful assembly, rioting, obstructing a public servant from performing their duty, and murder by lynching.Previously, the police had arrested four suspects for the minor girl’s rape and murder. One of them, identified as Prabash Mondal, was subsequently shot dead in an alleged police encounter during a crime scene reconstruction. The state’s Criminal Investigation Department (CID) is currently conducting a separate inquiry into that shootout.Senior police sources emphasized that raids are underway across the district to nab more suspects, and both the rape-murder and the lynching cases are being pursued with equal priority.
