Two boys drowned in a pond at a village in North Dinajpur district on Sunday afternoon, enraging many residents to attack the pond owner's house.
Sources said Subhadeb Murmu, 10, and Chiranjit Karmakar, 11, of Kasbamahasho village on the outskirts of Raiganj town went out of their homes in the afternoon. As they did not return home till evening, their families and neighbours started searching for them. After some time, their bodies were found floating in the pond around half a kilometre from their homes.
Soon, a section of villagers got agitated and attacked the house of pond owner Uttam Ghosh.
“Recently, Ghosh had engaged an earthmover to dig the pond deeper. The boys moved into the pond while playing and died,” said a protester.
As the news spread, a team from the Karnajora police outpost under the Raiganj police station rushed to the village. They made arrangements to send the bodies for post-mortem and brought the situation under control.
A police picket was posted in front of the Ghosh’s house to avert any fresh attack. An inquiry is in progress, police sources said.