A 60-year-old contractual labourer of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) was arrested for allegedly trying to molest an eight-year-old girl in a neighbourhood on the southern fringes of the city on Wednesday morning.

Kamal Mandal, a resident of Thakurpukur, went to work on Wednesday morning when he was allegedly spotted molesting a young girl.

People in the locality caught him and beat him up before handing him to police.

Residents said Mandal was tied to a lamp post and half his head was shaven bald. Angry neighbours smeared his face with black paint. He stood silently without any resistance.

“Kamal Mandal, 60, a labourer of the solid waste management department of the KMC, molested an eight-year-old girl and was arrested,” said Rahul De, deputy commissioner, south-west, Kolkata Police.

Neighbours of the child alleged Mandal was a “repeat offender”.

“I have seen him doing suspicious activities earlier, too. Today he was caught trying to molest a child. What is this? Won’t we be able to send our girls outdoors? All of us have daughters at home,” said a woman resident of the area.

Another woman said she saw the man sitting by the roadside when she returned home from work.

“The young girl was sitting next to her. I entered my home but felt something suspicious and came out again to check. I saw the man trying to touch the girl in a bad way,” she said.

"The girl was too small to understand what was happening to her. It is very very unfortunate. I immediately screamed and the man let go of the girl,” the woman said.