Alipurduar, July 5: A constable was beaten up by some local youths today after he tried to rescue from their hands a relative who had been allegedly supplying notes to candidates at an exam centre in town.

Nanda Prasad Das, a security guard of the additional superintendent of police of Alipurduar, has filed an FIR naming two youths.

Local people alleged that Samir Roy used to supply notes to candidates during exams to copy from and today’s scuffle started after he failed to pay those who supplied him with the material.

“He used to get the questions solved in lieu of money and supply it to the examinees in the hall itself. Those who provided him with the readymade notes were angry because he had not paid them. They hauled him up when he arrived at the exam centre. This is an open racket,” said a resident who did not want to be named.

Das, when he heard that Samir was being beaten up by the group of youths in front of Shanti Devi School went to his rescue. He allegedly pushed to the ground one of them, all members of a local club. The others then surrounded him and beat him up with cricket stumps.

The Rabindra Open School (Mukta Vidyalaya), which functions from Shanti Devi School every Sunday, was conducting the Class X exams today.

Samir has been missing since the incident and so are the youths named in the FIR. The club has been sealed by the police on the ground that it is not registered.

Jagannath Das, the Upa-pradhan of Chaporerpar-I gram panchayat, said if the constable had been assaulted, it was not intentional. “He was not in uniform so the boys did not realise that he was a policeman. Many people had seen him throw a boy to the ground. He was fighting for his relative, who I have heard, supplies notes for copying during exams. The police should not have shut the club for none of it members were involved.”

Pradeep Dutta, the subdivisional police officer of Alipurduar, said an inquiry was on. “We have sealed the local club as it had no registration.”