A mob beat up four policemen at a village near Domkal in Murshidabad district on Friday night when the law enforcers went there to arrest a criminal wanted in an Arms Act case.

After assaulting the police, the mob reportedly freed the arrested accused, Azmat Mondal, from their custody and chased the cops out of the village.

The four policemen, including assistant sub-inspector Quddus Sheikh, were seriously injured in the attack. Sheikh suffered fractures in his palm and fingers and was admitted to a private hospital in Domkal.

The incident took place at Kuchiamora under the jurisdiction of the Domkal police station. Hours later, a large police contingent raided the village and arrested seven persons, including two women, in connection with the attack.

Kuchiamora had once earned notoriety for violence and lawlessness, where rival criminal groups frequently clashed and retaliatory murders had become a grim routine. Owing to its troubled past and its distance of nearly 10km from the Domkal police station, the district administration had earlier established a permanent police outpost in the village. Injured ASI Sheikh is attached to this outpost.

Police sources said that after the new state government initiated a review of pending criminal cases and law-and-order issues, the Domkal police on Friday received information that the long-wanted criminal, Mondal, was sitting at a tea stall owned by Roman Dafadar at Kuchiamora.

Four policemen in plain clothes went to the village on two motorbikes and caught Azmat. However, the tea stall owner and local people reportedly failed to recognise them as policemen because they were in civilian dress. An alarm was raised, following which a large number of villagers, including women, rushed to the spot and attacked the police team.

Local sources claimed that after assaulting the policemen, the mob forcibly freed Azmat from the custody and virtually chased the cops out of the village.

A few hours later, a large police force from the Domkal police station conducted a raid in Kuchiamora and arrested seven persons, including Rabia Bibi and Shyamoli Khatun, who were alleged to have played leading roles in the attack on the police personnel.

The seven were produced in the Berhampore chief judicial magistrate’s Court on Saturday. The court remanded four in judicial custody, while Rabia Bibi, Shyamoli Khatun and Mofiqul Mondal were sent to seven days’ police
custody.

Contacted, Domkal subdivisional police officer (SDPO) Subham Bajaj declined to comment on the incident.

“According to the new rules set by the government, I am not eligible to comment,” he said.

Renoara Bibi, wife of tea stall owner Roman Dafadar, defended the villagers’ actions.

“Azmat Mondal was having tea at my husband’s tea stall when some men in civil dress arrived and started dragging him away. Villagers tried to resist because they could not identify them as policemen. They thought some goons were kidnapping Azmat, so they fought with them and snatched him away,” she said.

“But later, police started vandalising houses in the village and beating up women. Villagers are now living in panic,” she alleged.

A senior officer of the Domkal police station admitted that Kuchiamora remained a highly sensitive and violence-prone area despite having a permanent police picket there.

“The attack has exposed serious lapses in assessing the ground situation before attempting to arrest a dreaded criminal with such a small team,” the officer said.

The incident has also embarrassed the police administration at a time when chief minister Suvendu Adhikari has repeatedly asserted that police personnel must not retreat in the face of violent resistance.

Addressing police officers at Diamond Harbour recently, Suvendu had said: “Police are getting beaten up; I do not want to hear this kind of news.”

He assured the force of full government backing to enforce the law strictly.

Although the police raided the village later to round up the attackers, they couldn’t locate Azmat, whom the mob had freed.