Silchar, Nov. 15: Cachar deputy commissioner Sunanda Sengupta has blamed the district police for allowing the mob rampage on November 6 to go out of control.

?The unfortunate incident here on Saturday could have been avoided had the district police extended help from the beginning,? she alleged in a release today.

Admitting that it was not the right time to conduct a post-mortem on who was responsible for the trouble, she highlighted a slew of serious lapses on the part of district police, which, she alleged, aggravated the fracas.

Sengupta said she had apprehended trouble since morning following the death of a Bengali youth, who worked in a garment shop owned by a Marwari trader, under contentious circumstances the previous night. She tried to alert Cachar superintendent of police B.P. Rava and additional SP of the district D. Mukherji in a bid to prevent deterioration of law and order, but both of them were on leave.

Sengupta said the police, under the charge of Silchar Sadar police station in-charge Dilip Saha, added ?fuel to fire? by resorting to lathicharge during the funeral procession of the shop employee, Munna Mazumdar.

The deputy commissioner alleged that police authorities did not even inform her when shops belonging to Marwari traders were being plundered that evening. She rushed to Nazirpatty Road at night after being informed by the chairperson of Silchar Municipality Bithika Dev that mobs were on a looting spree.

To tackle the situation, she had to call the BSF and the CRPF after clamping indefinite curfew in the town from 8.30 pm, she added.

Sengupta said the police committed yet another mistake by trying to round up arsonists in Shib Colony the next day as the move stoked public ire.

A senior state government official today confirmed that Dispur has received a copy of the deputy commissioner?s letter. She had also handed over a copy to Assam governor Lt Gen. (retd) Ajai Singh during his one-day visit to the town after the rampage.

Sources, however, said the district administration cannot shrug off responsibility for the violence in the town.

A source said the divisional commissioner of south Assam and hill areas Prem Saran, who will conduct a probe into the cause and circumstances of the Silchar riot, has also been asked to investigate the district administration?s role in tackling the fracas. It has been alleged that the administration?s handling of the disturbance was ?amateur?.