Madhyamgram: Police arrested eight youths in Madhyamgram, North 24-Parganas, on Saturday in connection with an assault on a couple.

Anil Baran Saha and his wife Krishna were returning home in a rickshaw around 9pm when the incident occurred on the Madhyamgram-Badu Road, the police said.

"A group of youths were returning home from a picnic in a bus," Saha, a grocer by profession, said.

"The bus driver kept honking as the rickshaw puller struggled to allow him to overtake on the congested road."

Saha, who is in his mid-40s, alleged that some of the youths got off the bus and stopped the rickshaw. He claimed they were drunk. "They started hurling abuses at him. When I protested, they dragged me off the rickshaw. Some of them shoved me while others hurled abuses," Saha said.

"When I tried to protest, they punched me. They rained blows as I slumped to the ground. Passers-by and others present on the spot didn't dare to say anything."

In his complaint with Madhyamgram police station, Saha alleged that the youths didn't spare his wife, Krishna, when she tried to rescue him.

"I spotted a civic volunteer standing nearby. He advised me to go to Madhyamgram police station," Saha said.

The civic volunteer had alerted the police station and a police team reached in a while and stopped the bus.

"We brought the eight youths whom Saha and his wife identified as their attackers to the police station," an officer of Madhyamgram police station said. "The couple reached the police station and filed a formal complaint."

The youths were sent for a medical examination when Saha and his wife complained they were drunk.

Cops recorded the statements of a few witnesses. "Most of them confirmed what the couple had said," the officer said.

Saha, who had cuts and bruises, and his wife were taken to a nearby health-care centre.