(Top) The boys of the hostel watch the cars burn and (above) SDO Arunima Dey calls the police from the office of the Bharat Sevashram Sangha. Pictures by Surajit Roy

Malda, July 3: The boarders of a state-run hostel for orphan boys torched two government vehicles and damaged another belonging to the subdivisional officer this afternoon after one of their mates was allegedly electrocuted in his room.

According to police, Rajib Soren, 13, was found unconscious in his room near an exposed wire by the other inmates around 12 noon. He was rushed to the district hospital where he was pronounced brought dead.

There were 33 boys, aged between six and 18, at the Sahapur hostel.

Around 4.30pm, having heard about the incident, SDO Arunima Dey and two officers from the Bengal mass education department, Bharati Goswami and Sanjay Banerjee, arrived at the hostel.

The angry boarders immediately surrounded them. “Rajib is dead because of you,” the boys were heard shouting. According to eyewitnesses, they even shouted out to the SDO to turn Goswami out of the car because they wanted to “teach her a lesson”. The mass education department looks after the hostel.

The boarders alleged that Goswami had been told about the abject living condition in the hostel a number of times, but she had not shown any interest in their welfare.

“She always told us that everything will be done, but nothing ever happened,” one of the boys shouted.

Police said the boys then suddenly attacked the trio, who ran for shelter at the adjacent office of the Bharat Sevashram Sangha. The mob started throwing stones at the cars the officers had come in and set fire to two of them. The boys also smashed the windows and windscreen of the SDO’s car.

A huge police force came to the spot about an hour later. All the while, the SDO had been making frantic calls to the police from her mobile phone.

Additional police superintendent Sujit Sarkar, who led the force, said the boys had turned violent because they were angry.

“We have to proceed very carefully because they are minors. What action can we take against these orphaned children?” Sarkar asked.

Later, the boys said they were not repentant for what they had done.

“We have done nothing wrong. We have taken revenge for what happened today. We are left to fend for ourselves in the hostel, while the officers drive around in cars doing nothing,” one of them said.

One of the boarders alleged that there was only one toilet in the hostel, which can house 80 boys.

“The electric wiring in all the rooms have become exposed. We have been telling the hostel authorities about this but no one paid any attention,” he said.

The superintendent of the hostel, Sukumar Dey Das, was nowhere to be seen when the boys went on the rampage.

The SDO said an inquiry had been order by the district magistrate of Malda, Chittaranjan Das.