Rumour-mongers hit & strip women

TT, Jul 24, 2018, Jalpaiguri: A section of residents of a village near here on Monday roughed up four women and stripped two of them alleging that they were child-lifters.

The four were rescued from a school at Daukimari by Dhupguri police.

The stripped duo didn't know the other women and they all had come to Daukimari for different purposes.

Of the four, one is from Siliguri, while the other three belong to different localities of Dhupguri town.

A victim from Dhupguri said she worked as an agent of a micro finance company. She and her neighbour had been to Daukimari, around 45km from here, to collect money from clients. 

"We tried our best to convince the villagers that we were there for work and are residents of Dhupguri town (located 2km away). But they didn't pay heed," said the victim.

Both were taken to a nearby school where they were forced to remove clothes.

"We were accused of concealing tranquillisers and asked to shed our clothes. They did not find anything and yet, went on beating us up. Some women also joined the lot," the victim narrated.

Around the same time, another group of residents intercepted two other women - one from Siliguri and the other from Dhupguri. The duo were in Daukimari to sell garments.

"Both of us were carrying garments and yet, some people said they doubted that we were out to lift children," said the woman from Siliguri.

They were thrashed and made to walk to the school, where the other two women were kept. "More people gathered to assault us. Some villagers said we belonged to a group and were moving separately to kidnap children," said one of the victims.

The police rescued the four women from the school and took them to the block hospital in Dhupguri. All the four have suffered multiple injuries, police sources said.

Dipankar Roy, the block development officer of Dhupguri, said the police had been asked to act against rumour-mongers.