A 47-year-old man who was lynched by a mob early yesterday morning has been identified as Jagadish Basfore, a polling offi-cer who was apparently on his way to the town after election duty on Sunday.

Basfore was beaten to death on the suspicion that he was a child-lifter.

Residents of Pansila village, 8km from here, had allegedly found him in a drunken state, dragging away a reluctant 12-year-old boy.

The boy, who is in hospital and in a state of trauma — a result probably of watching the assault so closely, doctors said — has been unable to give his family’s whereabouts.

Basfore’s brother Paran identified the body at the Raiganj District Hospital this morning. Basfore was a resident of Kaliaganj, 22km from here, where he worked as a Group D employee in the rural hospital.

North Dinajpur police chief Swapan Banerjee Purnapatra said six persons have been arrested. “Investigations have revealed that he (Basfore) was drunk and had a child with him,” the officer said. “It is a mystery why he landed up in the village when he was supposed to report to the district headquarters.”

Basfore was on polling duty at the Deenanagore Adivasi Free Primary School.

Swapan Kumar Pal, the superintendent of the hospital where the boy has been admitted, said: “He is on sedatives. The trauma is probably because he saw the mob frenzy from such close quarters.”

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The Congress has salvaged its fortunes in North Dinajpur district by taking control of the district Zilla Parishad board. While the Congress bagged 15 ZP seats, the CPI-M won in 8 and the Forward Bloc one to complete the tally of 24 ZP seats in the district.
While the Congress emerged strong at Chopra, Raiganj and Hemtabad blocks winning all seven seats in offer, the CPI-M made its presence felt in the Islampur and Karandighi blocks.
Both the outgoing sabhadhipati and saha sabhadhipati of the CPI-M led North Dinajpur Zilla Parishad Mrs Jyotsnarani Singh and Mr Ashok Singh respectively were defeated by Congress candidates.
Mrs Singh held the disunity in the Left Front responsible for her defeat. “We had no adjustment either with the Forward Bloc or West Bengal Socialist Party in the places where we lost,” she said.
On the other hand, the president of North Dinajpur Congress Committee Mr Mohit Sengupta said: “The Congress could have won the North Dinajpur Zilla Parishad board in the last elections too but the CPI-M leadership had unleashed terror a week ago killing Congress supporters and destroying numerous dwellings. But this year the reacted against the CPI-M torture and the result is for all to see.”

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At least 20 persons were injured when both CPI-M and Congress activists pelted stones at each other in a polling station at Bishar village under Raiganj police station areas of North Dinajpur district last night.Five Congress activists and three CPI(M) members who received major injuries are undergoing treatment in Raiganj district hospital. Around 12 from both parties whose injuries were not serious are being treated in the village.
It was learnt that at night yesterday there had been a long queue of voters in this polling centre. Suddenly an altercation started between the activists of two parties and the altercation turned into a clash immediately. Both parties pelted stones at each other and used lethal weapons. A good number of voters who were waiting to cast their votes fled. The polling officers were compelled to suspend casting of votes for a certain period following the clash.
The president of North Dinajpur Congress committee Mr Mohit Sengupta said at night the CPI-M was trying to introduce their voters in the polling centres for casting votes. As the time was over Congress members protested their activities. Then they attacked our members in which our 12 activists were injured. Five of them are undergoing treatment in Raiganj district hospital.
On the other hand one of the members of the CPI-M district committee Mr Dilipnarayan Ghosh denied this charge and said that in this booth the Congress was introducing voters at night. When CPI-M activists protested they started pelting stones in which our eight members were injured.
The North Dinajpur superintendent of police, Mr SB Purnapatra, said a move had been initiated to arrest those who started the clash. The District Magistrate of North Dinajpur, Mr Sukumar Bhattacharjee, said: “In this booth reportedly a good number of voters could not cast their votes. So repolling will be hled tomorrow’’.
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Forward Bloc supporters held up traffic movement on NH 31 at Kanki and gheraoed the Kanki police station for hours today protesting against the arrest of a Chakulia zilla parishad party candidate Mr Prabhu Das. The police arrested Mr Das last night in connection with a life attempt on a Congress supporter Nasim Akhtar.
Mr Akhtar was stabbed at Suiwa village in Chakulia last night and currently under treatment at the Islampur hospital After the incident, the Congress lodged a complaint with Chakulia police station in which alleging that FB supporters under the leadership of Mr Prabhu Das had committed the crime.
Probing the incident, the police found a knife in Mr Prabhu Das’s vehicle. Pres-sed by the Congress MLA from Goalpokhar Mrs Dipa Dasmunshi, the police finally arrested Mr Das last night. The FB threatened to launch a movement if Mr Das is not released immediately.” The SDPO Islam-pur said an FIR was lodged and the matter would be investigated.

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Tension prevails at Bindol village in Raiganj after a para teacher Ms Pampa Roy of Bindol High Madrasa School allegedly eloped with a class IX girl from the minority community of the same school yesterday.
Locals traced both teacher and the girl to the house of one Mr Sunil Ghosh at Bindol this morning. The girl’s guardians and the locals have levelled charges of lesbianism against the teacher.
According to the student’s parents, she went missing yesterday. “Our daughter did not return from school yesterday. Worried, we informed the Bindol gram panchayat pradhan, Mr Debendranath Roy of her disappearance,” said the girl’s father Muhammad Mahiuddin, a resident of Pariharpur village. According to him, locals who had been looking for the missing girl later found out that the teacher was missing too. “The search continued throughout the night and they were traced about a kilometre away from the teacher’s residence, to one Mr Sunil Ghosh’s house at Bindol,” the girl’s father alleged.
Mr Mahiuddin alleged that the para teacher concerned had been sexually harassing his daughter for some time. “The matter has been reported to the pradhan of Bindol gram panchayat with a demand for punishment,” he said. The gram panchayat pradhan Mr Debendranath Roy confirmed that the supposed victim’s father had brought charges of sexual harassment against the para teacher.
The accused teacher Miss Pampa Roy denied the allegation against her and said: “There is no truth in the allegation. I have a friendly relation with the girl and so we decided to spend the night together. The victim neither confirmed nor rejected the sexual harassment charges against her teacher. Her answers to questions on the issue have so far been vague.
Although the girl’s parents have not lodged a police complaint, people are curious to know why the accused teacher took the girl to a house about a kilometre away from her residence after school without intimating her pa-rents.
The house owner Mr Sunil Ghosh was not available for comments but his wife said that their daughter was a student of the school where the teacher is employed and so they knew the teacher. “The teacher and the girl came to our house last evening and expressed their desire to put up for the night. We know nothing beyond that,” Mrs Ghosh, said.