Cooch Behar, Sept. 18: A police outpost in Cooch Behar was attacked by a mob of several hundred people this morning after a team of cops tried to stop purported Puja subscription extortion last night.
In the violence around 7am today, a bystander, Krishna Modak, was injured. The police have confirmed that two 9mm rounds were fired by them at Tapurhat outpost, about 10km from Cooch Behar town.
It is not clear if the wound Modak, a sari shop salesman, suffered was from a police bullet or something else.
Eleven policemen were injured as stones flew at them. Their injuries were not serious.
A section of villagers in Tapurhat alleged that the police were hand in glove with cattle smugglers and the attack by the mob was a result of festering anger among local people over this, but the police said the incident had nothing to do with cattle smuggling.
A senior police officer said that the force had information that a section of villagers was extorting money from truck drivers by blocking a road with logs. Last night, three policemen from the outpost started patrolling in a jeep. They saw a roadblock and youths extorting money.
“The policemen chased them, but the youths escaped,” said the police officer in Cooch Behar. “As they started proceeding along the same road, they saw another roadblock and saw some more youths. This time, they managed to catch two of the youths and started heading towards the outpost.”
But a little distance away, the police jeep was intercepted by a group of local people around 2.30am.
“They manhandled the three policemen and freed the two youths in their custody. They deflated two of the tyres of the jeep and pushed it into a pond,” the officer said.
Police sources and villagers said the three policemen were ringed by group of around 20 people for nearly four hours till reinforcements rescued the cops around 6.30am. By then the crowd had swelled in numbers.
Within an hour of the policemen’s rescue, a few hundred people ringed the outpost, less than a kilometre from the gherao spot, and started hurling bricks.
It is not clear how many policemen were present in the outpost at that time as reinforcements had been sought from Cooch Behar Kotwali. “The mob was about to attack the outpost when a police officer fired two rounds from his 9mm pistol. The situation was brought under control after reinforcements arrived,” said a police officer.
Three police vehicles were damaged by the mob.
Sachin Barman, a resident of Tapurhat, said the villagers were on vigilante duty to stop cattle smuggling, and not extorting truck drivers for Puja subscription.
“A group of villagers were on vigilante duty at night in Tapurhat. Some policemen in a vehicle suddenly beat up the villagers in the vigilante group. They then left for Saheberhat, about 5km away. When they were returning to the Tapurhat outpost after detaining two men, the villagers stopped the police vehicle. Behind the police vehicle was an empty truck bearing an Assam registration number. The villagers suspected the truck was used to smuggle cattle across the border. They also stopped the truck. After that, there was an altercation between the police and villagers,” Barman said.
He said the villagers formed the vigilante group “as there were regular incidents of cattle smuggling across the border. The police are involved in this racket. That is why the villagers detained the police.”
Jawed Shamim, the inspector-general, north Bengal, however, said: “Yesterday’s incident has no link with cattle smuggling. We will investigate the local people’s allegation against the police.”
A police source said that when the mob ringed the policemen last night, “they threw stones at the vehicle and smashed its windshield using sticks. The policemen got off the vehicle and were confined to the spot. Around 6.30am, a large force went to the spot to rescue the policemen.”
The injured man, the senior police officer was stable. “Doctors found a few pieces of splinters in his fractured jaw. It has not been confirmed if he was hit by a bullet fired by police,” he said.
