West Bengal cabinet minister Agnimitra Paul on Tuesday, 28 October 2026, posted a poem on her social media handle titled 'Encounter', indirectly endorsing police action following twin encounters in the state — one at Gaighata in North 24 Parganas district and another at Samserganj in Murshidabad district. Paul, who holds the portfolio of State Municipal Affairs and Urban Development and is also an acclaimed fashion designer, wrote the verses in Bengali without explicitly naming the incidents, though the timing left little ambiguity.

What the poem said

In the opening lines, Paul wrote: 'Let crime stop and let people live. Let the darkness of fear go away, and let the hand that is responsible for people's safety prevent crime from happening again and again.' The second stanza argued that since there is no room for bowing to injustice, crime must be handled strictly. In the concluding lines, she wrote: 'Yet the value of courage is not small, and nothing is more important than the security of the people. May the strength of the state be on the side of the people, and may the morning of peace return to every home. We need firmness in suppressing crime, and hence there is no compromise on the security of the people.'

The two encounters: who was killed and why

The first encounter took place on the intervening night of Monday and Tuesday at Gaighata, where Prahlad Das — an accused in the rape-murder of a minor girl — was killed. According to police, Das attempted to escape by snatching the firearm of an escorting officer and opened fire, prompting retaliatory fire.

The second encounter occurred on Tuesday afternoon at Samserganj, where Samiul Sheikh — accused of murdering a local Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader in Samserganj earlier this year — was shot dead under similar circumstances. In both cases, authorities stated the accused snatched police firearms and fired at on-duty officers before being killed in retaliatory fire.

Chief Minister's 'free hand' remarks

The minister's poem surfaced against the backdrop of remarks by Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari, who reportedly claimed he had given the police a 'free hand' in tackling two specific social evils: crime against women and narcotics trafficking. This framing has drawn attention from civil liberties observers, given that encounter killings remain a contested area of law enforcement accountability in India.

Context and broader implications

Encounter killings by state police forces have long been subject to scrutiny from courts and human rights bodies across India, with the Supreme Court having laid down guidelines requiring mandatory investigations into every such death. The twin West Bengal encounters coming on the same day — and being followed so quickly by a cabinet minister's public endorsement through verse — marks an unusual convergence of executive sentiment and police action. Critics may argue that such public statements from ministers risk normalising extrajudicial outcomes before judicial processes have run their course. The state government's position, by contrast, is that the police acted in self-defence under clear threat.

What happens next

Both encounter deaths are expected to trigger mandatory magisterial and judicial inquiries under existing Supreme Court guidelines. How the state government responds to those processes will determine whether Tuesday's incidents remain isolated episodes or signal a broader shift in West Bengal's policing posture.