A woman was reportedly murdered on Saturday night in Alipurduar when she protested against the behaviour of a drunk neighbour who injured another person in the area a melee that broke out around 11.30pm.

The accused Birodh Oraon was stumbling around a public area in Madarihat’s Huntapara and using abusive language on Saturday night, police sources said, which drew the attention of neighbours Kumar Oraon, 33, and Srimanti Oraon, 40, both of whom protested.

“Birodh stabbed the neighbours with his pocket knife, killing Srimati and injuring Kumar,” said an eyewitness.

Eyewitnesses rushed Srimanti to Birpara State General Hospital where she was declared brought dead. Kumar Oraon was taken to Alipurduar district hospital where he is under treatment.

Local residents on Sunday morning blocked the Madarihat-Totopara state road for four hours from 7am, prompting Madarihat police to assure picketers that police would arrest the culprit soon.

Birodh was arrested late on Sunday evening.

He will be produced before the Alipurduar additional chief judicial magistrate on Monday.

According to Bishnu Lakra, a local resident, Birodh was a “habitual drunk” and a “nuisance”.

“Nobody dared to protest his behaviour as he is so arrogant. But on Sunday night Srimanti could not tolerate it anymore and protested. As a result, Birodh attacked Srimanti and she lost her life,” he said.

Y. Raghuvamshi, the district police chief of Alipurduar, said the body of Srimanti had been sent to Alipurduar district hospital for a postmortem.