Raiganj, Nov. 1 -- Police arrested four persons, including two women, on Sunday in connection with the alleged abduction of a 20-year-old nursing trainee who has been missing since October 26 in Raiganj of North Dinajpur district.
The arrested persons, identified as Chanchal Chettri, Saraswati Chettri, Subrata Chakraborty and Gouri Chakraborty, are residents of Barogonda village. They were produced before a court on Sunday.
The incident triggered tension in the locality after Gauranga Halder, the BJP mandal president of Kamlabari, was allegedly assaulted by local residents on Saturday night over suspicions regarding the girl's disappearance.
According to local sources, residents confined him to a room in his house and staged a protest, demanding that the missing girl be brought back immediately. Police reached the spot and brought the situation under control.
According to family sources, Sreya Mandal, a resident of Barogonda, Raiganj, went missing on October 26 while travelling from her home to Raiganj Government Medical College, where she was undergoing nursing training.
She has remained untraced since then and her family members have been unable to contact her as her mobile phone has remained switched off.
The family suspects that she may have gone missing in connection with a youth reportedly related to Halder. They have lodged a complaint with the police and urged the authorities to trace her at the earliest. Dipsikha Das, a relative of the missing girl, said: "She has been missing for around five days. Her mobile phone is switched off, and we do not know whether she is safe. We suspect that she was abducted by a relative of the BJP leader. We want the police to trace her soon."
Halder, however, denied the allegations, describing them as false. A senior Raiganj police official said an investigation was underway to trace the missing trainee. Four persons had been arrested in connection with the case so far, the official added.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.