Krishnagar, Aug. 10: A widow has told police that a farmer she had spurned lifted her on his back in a busy Nadia market and raped her in a garden 300 metres away.

None of the villagers present in the market around 9.30 last night stopped Subodh Ghosh when the 30-year-old woman cried for help, the mother of two girls said.

The police quoted some villagers as saying they could not intervene because Subodh was a “rich” farmer and they depended on the odd jobs he gave them on his farm. Subodh is in hiding, the police said.

The widow, who sells vegetables at the Banpur village market in Krishnagunj, about 120km from Calcutta, told the police that Subodh, 40 and married, had earlier made advances but she had snubbed him.

The woman, whose husband died in a road accident five years ago, said she was leaving the market for home when Subodh, who was also from her village, Banpur, blocked her path.

“He asked me to go with him. When I refused, he lifted me on his shoulders and began walking down the market road. I cried for help. There were many people, but they did not come to my rescue,” she said.

He took her to the garden, gagged her and raped her, she said. “Subodh stuffed a piece of cloth in my mouth and raped me. After an hour, he fled and I came home in great pain.”

The police have questioned some of the villagers who were in the market last night. They said they were scared to pick a fight with Subodh because he was rich. “Subodh wields influence in the area and hobnobs with local politicians. Also, many villagers work as labourers on his land,” a police officer said.

The woman told the police that two villagers walking past the garden saw Subodh raping her. “They tried to raise the alarm but Subodh threatened them and they fled. The widow told us he had been harassing her for the past six months,” the officer said.

The woman said she did not tell her daughters, aged 6 and 12, anything but told her sister, who stays next door, this morning.

They went to Kanika Das, a panchayat member in Banpur, who took them to Krishnagunj police station where the widow lodged an FIR.

“I was stunned when I heard her story. How could people be so inhuman and cowardly? They did not even try to rescue her from Subodh’s clutches,” Kanika said.

The officer in charge of Krishnagunj police station, Nihar Roy, said a rape case had been registered against Subodh. “We have launched a hunt for him.”

Roy said the woman had been sent for a medical test.