Krishnagar, Dec. 25: Parts of Garapota village, where a teenage girl was tonsured and paraded nude for “boyish” habits, were deserted today as most men had fled fearing arrest and the women were cooped up inside.

Ramkrishna Maitra, who led the torture mob that included his 70-year-old mother, wife and brother, was arrested yesterday. He has been booked for assaulting and outraging the modesty of the girl.

The Maitras punished Tapati Biswas (name changed) for refusing to snap ties with her childhood friend, Ramkrishna’s daughter Parvati.

She had got married recently and her in-laws apparently did not like her mixing with Tapati, who wore pants, had short hair and played with boys in the Nadia village about 70 km from Calcutta.

“None of the other attackers named in the FIR have been traced. The victim told us apart from her friend’s parents, there were many others involved in the ghastly act,” additional superintendent of police Subrata Mitra said.

Ramkrishna, who was produced in the Ranaghat subdivisional judicial magistrate’s court, has been remanded in 14 days’ judicial custody.

“The part of Garapota where the incident took place is now bereft of men. Everyone has fled,” Mitra said.

After being tortured for over two hours, Tapati ran home to her widowed mother without any clothes on her.

The police said this wasn’t the first time the 19-year-old was attacked. A year ago, some villagers had beaten her up for her “free lifestyle”, said a Hanskhali police station officer. “We had arrested some of them, who are now on bail. We suspect some of them were behind Saturday’s incident.”