New Delhi, July 11 -- KOLKATA - She had gone to buy a birthday present. One day later, the body of an 11-year-old girl was pulled from a pond in Baruipur, a town south of Kolkata in West Bengal, and police said she had been raped and murdered.

Within hours, the streets around her home became a site of something the officers could not control. A crowd gathered, then a crowd turned into a mob, and when the mob was finished, a man who had nothing to do with the girl's death lay dead.

Four people died in connection with the case by Wednesday evening. Police arrested Prabhas Mondal, one of the four men accused of the rape and murder, during a crime scene investigation and shot him dead when they said he attempted to flee. At least 35 others ...