Balasore: Two officials, deputed to carry out Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in West Bengal, were brutally assaulted by a mob after they mistakenly crossed over the state’s boundary into Odisha on Wednesday.
Villagers in Odisha took them to be child lifters and assaulted them. The mob also turned on the police when they arrived to rescue the duo. As many as 72 people have been arrested in this connection, as reported by PTI on Friday.
According to the report, the two officials entered a village in Raibania police station area in the Balasore district, which shares a border with West Bengal.
The two were deputed as micro-obse
rvers for SIR work and were supposed to visit a village in the Nayagram block in West Bengal, the police said.
They entered the bordering village in Odisha by ‘mistake’ as their hired auto-rickshaw could not locate the exact village where they were supposed to go.
Their sudden arrival at the village created a flutter. Locals suspected them to be members of a child-lifting gang and assaulted them, the police said.
The police rushed to the spot on receiving information, but the mob obstructed them from doing their duty. Villagers have also been accused of manhandling police personnel on duty. The two were finally rescued after some effort.
Two cases have been registered against the law violators and 72 people have been arrested so far, while a search is on to nab others involved in the incident, Niranjan Behera, ASP, Balasore, has been quoted by the news agency as saying.
Champabati Soren, IC, Raibania police station, said the two SIR officials were admitted to the Raibania hospital and discharged after preliminary treatment the same day.