Leader of Opposition in West Bengal Assembly Suvendu Adhikari on Thursday said that rapists should be punished through “police encounters”, demanding implementation of the model adopted by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Adityanath, reported PTI.

Adhikari leader made the statement as Bharatiya Janata Party MLAs staged a walkout from the House during the extended Monsoon Session.

“Three women were raped in just two days,” Adhikari told reporters. “A young schoolgirl was brutalised and murdered in Matigara recently. Earlier, similar incidents happened in Kaliaganj and Hanskhali. In all places, young girls have been violated or killed. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who also holds the law and order portfolio, has squarely failed to stop atrocities on women.”

The BJP leader was referring to the rape and murder of a Class 11 student in Siliguri district on Monday. Two days later, a mob had vandalised the house of the suspect, Mohammed Abbas, who has been arrested, reported the Hindustan Times.

In view of the incident, the Vishva Hindu Parishad had called for a 12-hour bandh on Thursday.

Adhikari said that it was dismaying to see the Hindutva group members being baton-charged and arrested by police while the perpetrators were yet to be booked, reported PTI.

“This state needs a strict administrator like Yogi Adityanath,” Adhikari said. “Those who commit such crimes have no right to live. They should be killed in encounters, if necessary.”

Since he came to power in 2017, Adityanath has adopted of meting out the “instant justice” through illegal bulldozer demolitions of the homes of people, who are most often Muslims, merely accused of violating the law and extrajudicial killings by the police. Adityanath’s methods have been praised by BJP leaders and Hindutva supporters.

Meanwhile, following Adhikari’s comment, the ruling Trinamool Congress said that a first information report should be lodged against the BJP leader for openly advocating “encounters”, reported PTI.

“Adhikari, being a people’s representative and having taken oath under the Constitution, cannot go beyond the law of the land,” Trinamool Congress spokesperson Joy Prakash Majumdar said. “He has become the proponent for encounters and bulldozer politics which will instill fear and anarchy in society against democratic traditions.”

Majumdar also said that Adityanath’s regime, marked by encounters and bulldozer politics, has been hauled up as it violates human rights and is against democratic principles.

Also read: The making of the ‘bahubali’ model of governance in Adityanath’s Uttar Pradesh