A section of residents, mostly women, of a village near the Bengal-Assam border in Alipurduar's Pakhriguri ransacked the house of a suspected drug peddler and torched his car on Saturday.

Sources said that on Friday, a group of women in Uttarpara on the interstate border reached the house of Prasenjit Sarkar, alleging that he ran a narcotic peddling racket.

“He sells narcotics to drug abusers and peddlers of Assam. We want the police to stop such illegal activities in our village. As the police didn’t do anything, we voiced our protests,” said a woman.

Sarkar, who perhaps had wind of the protest, had already fled with his family, keeping the house locked.

After demonstrating there for some time, the women returned home.

On Saturday morning, two youths from Assam reached the village. As they started inquiring about Sarkar, the villagers got agitated. They caught hold of the duo, tied them up and thrashed them.

Soon, the women assembled and ransacked Sarkar's house. They also torched Sarkar’s car parked nearby.

Later, the women claimed they had recovered a firearm and two swords from the house.

A team from Kumargram police station and firemen rushed to the spot. The firemen doused the flames while police brought the situation under control.

Amid this chaos, the duo whom the villagers had caught managed to flee.

“We are fed up with the activities of this drug racket and the highhandedness of Prasenjit Sarkar and his men. If we approach the police, they threaten us. The police must act,” said a villager.

Senior police officers said they were looking into the charge.

“Villagers should file a specific complaint with the police instead of taking the law into their own hands,” said SP Y. Raghuvamshi.