The Malda superintendent of police on Thursday "closed" four police officers in connection with an attack on two women at Pakuahat in the district on July 18.

SP Pradeep Kumar Yadav removed the four officers from their posts and instructed them to report at the district police lines. The quartet will not be given any assignment till further orders.

A mob had attacked the two women from Manikchak block at a market in Pakuahat which is under the jurisdiction of Bamangola police station. The duo who were accused of stealing cash were beaten up and stripped. The women said they used to sell dry fish and weren't involved in the theft.

The police rescued the women but they were arrested in connection with an alleged vandalism of the Nalagola police outpost the previous day. BJP supporters had held a demonstration in front of the outpost under the jurisdiction of Bamangola police station on July 17 in connection with the alleged murder of a party worker.

The BJP denied the charge that the outpost had been vandalised during the protest.

A few days later, a video showing the women being tortured by the mob went viral. The BJP resorted to protests and alleged that the police had implicated the women in false cases, instead of extending assistance to them.

A court later granted bail to the women and they were released from prison.

BJP leaders who had held a demonstration for over 24 hours in front of the SP’s office questioned the role of some police officers.

“After the women were arrested, they were made to sit at the police station in torn clothes for around two hours. This is inhuman,” said Khagen Murmu, the BJP MP of Malda North who had led the demonstration.

The charge prompted senior police officers to gather details and eventually, the four officers were "closed". “They have been asked to report at the police line. An inquiry is in progress,” said a source.

The quartet are Jaydeep Chakraborty and Sanjoy Sarkar, who were posted as the inspector-in-charge and the sub-inspector of Bamangola police station, respectively, Rakesh Biswas, a sub-inspector and the officer-in-charge of Pakuahat police outpost, and Milan Kumar Sarkar, an assistant sub-inspector posted at the Nalagola outpost.

“Sankar Sarkar, the inspector of the district enforcement branch, will be in charge of Bamangola police station while Animesh Samajpati, a sub-inspector of Gazole police station, will take over as the new OC of Pakuahat outpost,” the source said.

Earlier this week, the National Human Rights Commission had sought a report in two weeks from the SP on the alleged harassment of the women. The two women, sources said, have approached the National Commission for Women and the National Commission for Scheduled Castes, seeking action against the district police.

“The police could have saved us from the torture. Instead of helping us, they put us behind bars in a case with which we don’t have any connection. That is why we have approached the national commissions,” said one of the women.