A Trinamul Congress councillor of Kalyani municipality and one of her party colleagues were arrested after they allegedly assaulted a civic volunteer for stopping her SUV that had entered a wrong lane at a diversion of NH12 in Ranaghat on Friday.

Angry locals detained the politicians and their aides and the car until a police team rushed in and arrested the assault accused.

Councillor Laxmi Oraon, 49, who represents ward 8 of Kalyani, and youth leader Ranjit Das were produced before the additional chief judicial magistrate’s court in Ranaghat later in the afternoon and granted bail. The Trinamul councillor and her companions were going to Krishnagar to attend a party meeting when the incident occurred.

The duo have been accused of voluntarily causing hurt, criminal intimidation and wrongful restraint.

Superintendent of police of Ranaghat Kumar Sunny Raj said: “We have started a case against the offenders. The prime accused and her companion have been arrested. We are looking into all the aspects.”

Sources said trouble broke out around 2pm when civic volunteer Nabakumar Mullick stopped the councillor’s SUV on NH12 near the Begopara Roman Catholic church gate.

A police officer said: “The area is witnessing continuous traffic snarls for the past few months due to the ongoing widening of NH12. A railway overbridge is under construction. As a result, a traffic diversion had to be put up there by the police for easy passage of vehicles.”

“But the councillor travelling in the SUV ignored the diversion and entered the wrong lane, prompting the civic volunteer to stop the car. This angered the councillor and her aides, who first verbally abused the civic volunteer and then thrashed him. He was rescued by residents, who also detained the councillor and her aides before handing them over to the police,” the officer said.

Oraon said: “A civic volunteer stopped my car and verbally abused me and my aides. I have absolute faith in the judiciary and I am ready to face the law. We raised out hand on the civic volunteer only in self-defence. I am a councillor for the past 15 years and have never indulged in any unlawful activity.”

Trinamul’s Ranaghat district committee president Debasish Ganguly said: “I am pained to have learnt about the incident. Laxmidi is a very responsible leader. I don’t know what led her to act in such a way. But none is above the law, one must understand this.”

The news of the duo getting bail angered a section of civic volunteers, who accused the police of surrendering before the ruling party.

“This is very unfortunate.... We are being subjected to regular humiliation by ruling party leaders, who never obey traffic rules. Today’s arrest became unavoidable due to public outrage. But when the political identity of the duo was disclosed, our seniors ensured that weaker charges were brought against them so they could get bail,” a civic volunteer in Ranaghat said.