An anganwadi employee and a helper were confined by the residents of Motiharpur village in Chanchal-I block, alleging that they were trying to smuggle rice from the local anganwadi centre on Tuesday.

Irate villagers demonstrated in front of the centre demanding punishment for the worker and the helper.

The agitation continued for nearly an hour before police intervened to rescue the workers at around noon.

An anganwadi is a rural child care centre.

Lalo Bibi, a resident of Motiharpur village alleged that Sitara Bewa, the anganwadi worker and her helper were caught red-handed "trying to smuggle rice sacks from the centre".

"The minors and pregnant mothers are not served food here as scheduled by the government. The quantity of the food, too, is low. We always suspected something was wrong here,” said a villager.

"Today (on Tuesday), we found that sacks of rice were being sent somewhere. We suspect that the rice would have been sold in the open market, hence, we detained and confined the duo," a villager added.

The accused, however, refuted the allegations.

"Some local women, for reasons best known to them, levelled false allegations against us and confined us in a room. We always try to follow the government's food norms,” said Sitara Bewa.

Alok Mandal, the child development project officer of Chanchal-I block, said he heard about the incident. “No written complaint has been lodged with us, but we will look into it," Mandal said.

Fake notes

Englishbazar police arrested one Lochan Mandal, 26, of Dui Shoto Bighi under Kaliachak police station from Mahadipur bridge near the border with Bangladesh, with fake Indian currency notes of Rs 3 lakh.