A 23-year-old man accused in the rape and murder of a 17-year-old girl was killed in a "police encounter" in Bengal's North 24 Parganas district.
The incident took place shortly before 12 am on Monday in Gaighata, where the accused was taken for reconstruction of the crime, a senior officer said on Tuesday.
The Bangladesh border is about four kilometres away from the crime scene
According to the officer, the accused snatched the service revolver of a police officer and opened fire on the personnel, leading to retaliatory firing in which he sustained gunshot wounds.
He was taken to Chandpara Rural Hospital, where doctors declared him dead. The body has been sent for a post-mortem.
"The circumstances under which the accused managed to snatch an officer's revolver and the sequence of events leading to the firing are likely to be probed," the officer said, adding that no policemen were injured in the incident as they took cover in a nearby canal.
In Bengal, this was the second incident in three months of a rape accused getting killed in police firing while trying to escape after snatching firearms from the police during reconstruction of the crime scene.
In July, the prime accused in the rape and murder of an 11-year-old girl was killed in a police encounter after he allegedly snatched an officer's revolver and opened fire on the personnel during crime reconstruction in Baruipur in South 24 Parganas district.
A large police contingent has been deployed in the area to maintain law and order.
The man was arrested for allegedly raping and murdering the class 11 student, whose body was found outside a neighbour's house in the Gaighata area on Sunday morning.
The girl, who had gone to attend a musical programme near her home on Saturday night, allegedly went missing.
Police sources said that the victim left the venue after receiving a phone call and did not return home that night.
According to local media outlets, a section of Gaighata residents have expressed satisfaction after news of the police ‘encounter’ spread. The deceased girl's family, too, welcomed the development.
“I will never get my daughter back. The police did the right thing on the government's orders. The accused tried to escape and fired at the police. We have learnt that he died in retaliatory police firing,” the girl's father said.
A local woman said the encounter was inevitable, given that the accused had attacked the police while trying to escape. She said she was pleased with the police action and felt it would serve as a lesson to others.