NEW DELHI, India: The rape and murder of an 11-year-old girl in the eastern Indian town of Baruipur has triggered mob violence, a fatal police shooting and renewed debate over India’s failure to curb sexual violence against women and children.
The girl went missing on a Saturday evening this month after leaving home to attend a friend’s birthday party. She was abducted, raped and placed in a sack before being thrown into a pond while still alive, a local investigating police officer told Reuters news agency.
Her body, bearing bite marks and bruises, was pulled from the pond the following morning, Reuters reported, citing police and residents. Her father told the news agency he had been unable to think clearly in the days since.
Indian law bars the disclosure of details that could identify victims of sexual assault, and her identity has not been made public.
Mob violence and killing in custody
The case took a further violent turn when an angry mob vandalised shops and railway lines and beat a man to death, believing him to be the perpetrator, CNN reported.
West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari later said the man killed by the mob was innocent and pledged that he too would receive justice.
Days later, the man arrested as the primary suspect in the case was shot dead while in police custody, state broadcaster News on Air reported.
Police said the suspect had snatched a firearm from an officer during a crime-scene reconstruction and attempted to flee before he was fatally shot, according to the broadcaster.
Human rights lawyer Vrinda Grover described such police shootings as a form of theatre meant to calm public anxiety rather than address the causes of crime, warning that they instead strengthen the arbitrary power of the state.
Political fallout for Modi’s BJP
The killing has embarrassed Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which took control of West Bengal’s government in May after ending 15 years of rule by the All India Trinamool Congress, on promises to improve women’s safety.
The opposition Trinamool Congress has accused the BJP-led state government of failing to protect women and girls.
West Bengal BJP leader Agnimitra Paul defended the police response, saying the government would not tolerate lawlessness.
Baruipur police officer Arvind Kumar Anand said the department was reviewing its handling of the case to identify any errors.
The girl’s family said officers were slow to search for her after she was reported missing, with a family friend saying that police had done little beyond asking a few local residents. Locals subsequently reviewed CCTV footage themselves to trace her movements, Reuters reported.
Wider pattern of sexual violence
The Baruipur case is one of several recent incidents to draw global attention.
In Rajasthan, a 12-year-old girl was abducted, drugged and raped by multiple men over four days across several hotels before being rescued. Later, police arrested 22 people in connection with the rape case.
India’s National Commission for Women said the case exposed serious administrative and policing failures that allowed the crime to continue, according to the agency.
In Ghaziabad, near New Delhi, a seven-year-old girl was raped and killed, her body found in an empty shaft of an unfinished shopping complex, the Times of India reported.
In Bihar’s Begusarai district, a 28-year-old mother of four was gang-raped at her home by five men who also inserted objects into her body, BBC Hindi reported.
Police confirmed the assault through a medical examination and said two of five identified suspects had been arrested, with a special investigation team searching for the others.
A police station chief was suspended for negligence after the woman’s husband said officers initially refused to file a complaint on the night of the attack.
Rising rape cases in India
India recorded 29,536 rape cases in 2024 alone, according to National Crime Records Bureau data — a figure that has changed little in recent years even as crimes against children have risen sharply.
Cases under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act reached a record 69,191 in 2024, Reuters reported.
The government had planned to establish 2,600 fast-track courts for sexual offences by 2026, but only 755 have been set up, including 410 dedicated to child abuse cases, according to official data.
India ranked 131st out of 148 countries on gender equality in the World Economic Forum’s 2025 Gender Gap Report.
Root causes of rising sexual violence
Campaigners say the figures reflect only part of the problem, with many assaults going unreported because of stigma and victim-blaming.
Lawyer Karuna Nundy, who helped draft India’s anti-rape laws, told Reuters that governments had never seriously attempted to dismantle the patriarchy underlying such violence, calling instead for sustained efforts to change attitudes at the community level and to recruit gender-sensitive police and judges.
Kolkata-based activist Satabdi Das said the problem was rooted in patriarchal culture nationwide and would not be resolved simply by a change of government.
Anti-rape campaigner Yogita Bhayana, cited by BBC, said society had become desensitised to extreme brutality and that the threat of capital punishment for rape had failed to instil sufficient fear among offenders.
The case echoes the 2012 gang rape and murder of a 23-year-old student on a bus in New Delhi, which triggered mass protests and led to tougher anti-rape laws. Four men convicted in that case were executed in 2020.
Despite the reforms, more than 30,000 rape cases are recorded in India each year, and activists say implementation of protective measures continues to fall short of government targets.
