Patna, Oct. 15: An assistant sub-inspector (ASI) of police was arrested today for allegedly trying to rape a widow at Mor Dehri village under Amjor police station in Aurangabad district.

Mahendra Mandal, 55, was nabbed by a group of Mor Dehri villagers, who beat him up mercilessly and handed him over to police. He was admitted to Aurangabad Sadar hospital.

Sources said Mandal had barged into the widow’s house in a drunken state around 11pm yesterday and allegedly tried to rape her. The victim raised an alarm when the ASI slapped her. On hearing the woman’s cries for help, her neighbours rushed to her house and broke open the door that was locked from inside. They dragged Mandal out and beat him up.

Later, they called up Aurangabad superintendent of police Siddharth Mohan Jain and other police officials to tell them Mandal’s misdeed. Mandal, who was posted at the Devjara outpost, was sent to jail. Jain said Mandal has been suspended and a case has been lodged against him at the Amjor police station.

“A probe is on into the charge against him,” the SP added.

Sources said the ASI had entered the victim’s house on the pretext of probing a complaint lodged against her despite the state police headquarters’ recent order that a woman could be arrested after only by woman police personnel only. “Why a policeman should enter a woman’s house for investigation around midnight and that too alone?” a resident asked.

The accused, however, denied the rape charge and said he was assaulted by the villagers in protest against the recent attack on a woman by some residents. “I had gone to her house to probe a complaint lodged against her,” he said.

This is the third time in 10 months that any policeman in the state has been named accused in rape cases. The other two instances were the alleged custody rape of a woman by some policemen at Majhu police station in Saran district and the rape of a woman from Kushinagar, Uttar Pradesh, by two policemen at a police station in Bagaha district. In both the cases, the accused policemen were suspended and sent to jail.