A group of irate tribal people torched four houses and three wooden furniture shops at Hatjora village in Dehaband area under the Kushmandi police station on Friday afternoon.

They were protesting the brutal assault and rape of a mentally challenged tribal woman in the village last Saturday. The rampaging mob set houses on fire and vandalised at least 10 houses in the village right in front of the police.

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Police meanwhile blocked roads that led to the village to stop more people from entering the village and creating more trouble. “Two fire engines and three ambulances from Gangarampur and Harirampur rushed to the spot.

However, there were no casualties reported in the incident,” sources said. Senior police officials also stopped journalists two km away from the village and did not allow them to take photographs or talk to villagers.

More than 500 tribal people from all over the district assembled with traditional weapons and raided the Hatjora village, of which the main accused, Ramprabesh Sharma, is a permanent resident.

The houses of Premlal Sharma, Ramprabesh Sharma, Ashok Sharma and Binod Sharma were set on fire. All of them are relatives of Ramprabesh Sharma. Tension began early in the morning after the tribal people started movement in and around the village.

“We informed the police in the morning that the tribal people had started assembling in the village. Police came, but they remained mere spectators, as the mob went berserk right under their nose,” a villager, Santash Thakur, said.

“Police are not allowing us to enter the village for pst three hours and making safe passage for the agitators. We are helpless in front of the police. We are not the accused and we have no connection with the incident. It is the responsibility of the police to protect us, but they failed to do so,” said one of the relatives of the Sharma family, Rajesh Sharma.

“The police in South Dinajpur have failed to give security to the general people. The victim girl was recovered after 18 hours. That proves that the police have no source in the village level. This ws proven today too as the police failed to control the situation in the village,” said the district president of the BJP, Suvendu Sarkar.

Superintendent of Police Prasun Banerjee and other police officers did not receive phone calls despite several attempts to have them comment on the matter. It may be mentioned that chief minister Mamata Banerjee, during her public meeting in Gangarampur on Wednesday last, rapped the district police for not performing well in the tribal woman rape case.