Malda, Aug. 8: A youth sporting a mobile phone that he had bought this morning was thrashed by a mob for taking pictures of a woman travelling in a bus before being handed over to police in the Englishbazar area of Malda town.

Kabir Shiekh, a bidi trader, has been booked under Section 290 of the IPC for creating nuisance in public place.

The 23-year-old resident of Dhuliyan in Murshidabad district had boarded an NBSTC bus this morning. The woman, who was on her way to Gour Bango University to enquire about postgraduate courses, boarded the same bus at Kaliachak, 30km from here and in Malda district

The woman told the Englishbazar police that after a few minutes into her journey, she spotted the youth taking her pictures on his mobile handset. She also noticed him checking to see if they had been saved in his mobile.

The inspector-in-charge of Englishbazar police station, Prasad Pradhan, said when the woman protested, other passengers started beating up Kabir.

“Kabir was handed over to the police as soon as the vehicle reached the NBSTC terminus,” said the police officer. The police station is right next to the terminus.

Kabir was taken into custody after the woman filed a complaint against him. Sitting at the police station, the woman said: “Soon after I got into the bus, the man pointed his camera phone at me and started clicking. I felt offended and protested.”

Kabir, however, pleaded innocence. “I had no bad intentions. I had bought the cellphone with the camera facility from a shop in Dhuliyan this morning. This is the first time that I bought a camera-phone and I took many pictures, including those of the woman,” Kabir said. He told the police that he had never seen the woman before.

Pradhan said the mobile handset had been seized and the police were going through the contents of its photo gallery. “So far, nothing obscene has been found in the phone.”