A local Trinamul leader in Cooch Behar district has been accused of trying to rape a minor schoolgirl on Monday evening.

Police arrested the accused on Tuesday night.

According to police sources, the Trinamul leader, who is in his 30s, entered the house of the 14-year-old girl, charged at her, tore up her clothes and tried to rape her. The girl was alone in the house then.

As the girl screamed, the accused tried to throttle her, sources said. The girl’s sister, who had gone out to a shop, returned home and tried to hit him. The accused beat up the sister and left the spot.

The family filed a complaint with the police on Tuesday.

“He had threatened both my daughters with dire consequences if we took any legal steps against him,” said the girl’s father, a farmer.

“We have already filed a case. The accused was arrested on Tuesday night,” said a police officer.

As the news spread, a number of girls from the school where the victim studies hit the street on Wednesday morning, demanding exemplary punishment for the accused.

“What happened to our classmate is shocking. Who knows, any of us can face such a situation. That is why we want the police to arrest him. He should be punished in such a way that such incidents don’t occur again,” said a schoolgirl who joined the Wednesday protest that culminated into a road blockade, holding up traffic for two hours.

The blockade lifted when the police told the girls that the accused had been arrested.

A district Trinamul leader, when contacted on the issue, said: “The law will take its own course. Police are investigating the case."

BJP leaders alleged some Trinamul functionaries initially had tried to shield the accused.

“He is a Trinamul booth committee president and is close to the party’s elected representatives in rural bodies. Initially, some local leaders tried to shield him but failed,’ said Ajit Pal, a BJP district secretary in Cooch Behar.