Balurghat, March 10: A trader from Hili tried to take away his four-year-old son from his in-laws’ place at Patiram’s Dhulator but failed when neighbours beat up two of his accomplices and rescued the boy.

The trader, Vinod Singh, who is estranged from his wife, managed to escape along with a friend. An FIR has been filed against him and his three accomplices.

The four had raided Vinod’s in-law’s house at Dhulator, 17km from here, and ransacked it. “They also threatened us and bundled my son Debraj into a car before fleeing,” said his wife Jayanti in the FIR lodged with the Patiram police outpost.

Jayanti, who was married to Vinod six years ago, has been staying with her parents ever since she filed a divorce two years ago. Her father Ram Shankar Prasad is a peon at Bahicha High School.

“My husband and in-laws used to torture me for dowry and even tried to set me on fire once,” Jayanti said.

Vinod and his parents were in jail two years ago on the basis of his wife’s complaint. They are now out on bail.

Today, following the raid by Vinod and his friends, Jayanti and her parents raised the alarm, prompting their neighbours to come out. They chased the four who were finding it difficult to negotiate the curves on the narrow village road.

After a few kilometres, the villagers intercepted the Ambassador and caught hold of two of Vinod’s friends — Buddhadeb Das and Ramprasad Sarkar. The duo were beaten up and handed over to the police in the outpost.

The villagers also managed to free the boy from the gang after a scuffle. But Vinod and another accused Bapi Das sped away with the car.

The inspector in-charge of the Balurghat police station, Dharmadeb Chatterjee, said a search has begun to trace the two accused who have fled. “We have alerted the Hili and other police stations and also circulated the vehicle number,” he added.