Somnath Sinha at his home on Thursday night. (Sayantan Ghosh)

A 69-year-old widow alleged in the high court on Thursday that three officers of Dum Dum police station had assaulted her and her two children and forced her to sign on a stamp paper allowing a local club to build a room on her plot.

The accused — inspector Sukumar Nandy and sub-inspectors Ramkrishna Guria and Ratan De — also allegedly snatched Saraswati Sinha’s cellphone and Rs 2,000 from her son, in his early 20s.

Justice Jayanta Biswas dubbed the cops’ conduct a “serious crime” and asked the North 24-Parganas police superintendent, Rahul Srivastava, to conduct a probe and decide within four days whether FIRs should be lodged against the trio.

“Discuss with additional superintendent, Barrackpore, (Dhrubajyoti De) and decide within four days whether the police should lodge FIRs against the officers. If FIRs are lodged, the inquiry will have to be completed within three months. There is no bar on taking disciplinary action against the accused during these three months,” Justice Biswas said.

The judge also ordered Srivastava to ensure the family’s security. Belghoria sub-divisional police officer Sudip Roy said: “We will do as the court has ordered.”

Sinha lives at Kalidham Colony in Dum Dum with son Somnath and daughter Runu, 29. She alleged that local youths had been harassing them for years because of the family’s resistance to their plan to build the room on her premises.

Sinha lodged a complaint with Dum Dum police station on March 7. “Instead of acting on the complaint, the police had on March 31 come to my client’s house when she and her daughter were away and threatened her son. They also asked her son to come to the police station with his mother and sister,” said Sinha’s counsel Billwadal Bhattacharya.

“On April 6, when the Sinhas went to the police station following a call from the officer, they were assaulted. The accused forced my client to sign on a Rs50 stamp paper, which allowed the club to build the room, and two white papers. They snatched her phone and Rs 2,000 from Somnath. The Sinhas were allowed to return home around 11pm, more than 12 hours after they had gone to the police station,” said the lawyer.

Inspector Nandy refused to comment. Srivastava said he had asked his officers to probe the woman’s allegations.