A police team was attacked and their vehicle torched at a village near here on Saturday night when they went there to rescue a youth who had been apprehended and beaten up by local people who suspected him to be a thief.

An assistant sub-inspector of police was injured in the attack and is under treatment at Raiganj Government Medical College and Hospital. Reinforcements went to Bhatol village and brought the situation under control.

The police have arrested nine persons.

Sources said some residents of Bhatol had intercepted Mohammad Mustakim at Amtala More and accused him of stealing cellphones. “The villagers started roughing him up. Law enforcers from the police outpost at Bhatol that is under Raiganj police station arrived and rescued the youth. But some in the mob demanded that Mustakim be handed over to them. The mob attacked the police with bricks, stones and sticks. The villagers ransacked a police vehicle and set it on fire. Mustakim’s motorcycle was also burned down,” said a source.

Additional forces led by Suraj Thapa, the inspector-in-charge of Raiganj police station, went to the village and dispersed the attackers. The injured ASI, Chanchal Singha, was taken to the hospital.

The police conducted raids at Bhatol and arrested nine persons, including two minors.

“A police picket has been raised at the village to keep the situation under control. We ordered a probe into the attack,” said a senior police officer.

All the nine arrested persons were produced in the chief judicial magistrate’s court in Raiganj on Sunday. The court sent the minors to a government home. Of the remaining seven, two were remanded in police custody for five days and five in judicial custody for 14 days.