Police in Malda averted robbery attempts and nabbed eight persons of a gang on Wednesday night.

Senior police officers said the gang seemed to be based in the neighbouring state of Bihar and had entered Malda to commit crimes.

Chanchal police raided a mango orchard at Mayapur village and spotted a gang of over 10 persons.

“Although three or four of them escaped, we could nab eight. Seven of the arrested people are from Bihar and one is from North Dinajpur district,” said a police officer.

Out of the seven, at least four have criminal cases registered against them in Bengal and Bihar.

“During preliminary investigation, we have found that they had plans to burgle a few houses in Chanchal and some other locations of North Dinajpur,” the officer said.

The Mahananda river flows between Abadpur, a locality near the interstate border, in Bihar and Chanchal of Malda. “Criminals from Bihar often cross the river and enter the area. There are CCTV cameras but they manage to evade those,” said a source.

A court on Thursday remanded the eight in police custody for seven days.

Teacher attacked

A female teacher of a primary school was attacked by a person at the entrance to her school in Malda on Thursday.

She was injured and is under treatment at a private nursing home in Old Malda. Police have detained the accused.

Sources said as she was about to enter the school premises, the accused hit her repeatedly with a tree branch as she refused to talk to him. She ended with a fractured left hand and suffered injuries to the right hand and the head.

“The mid-day meal workers rushed to her rescue and her colleagues took her to the local hospital. Meanwhile, the accused fled,” said a source.

Sources said earlier, the person had proposed to her. As she refused, he used to harass her.

“We want police to take stringent steps against him,” said a member of the teacher’s family.