"NVF man innocent'

MALDA, Sept. 21: Senior police officials today came out in support of Pyarelal Mahato, the 52-year-old National Volunteer Force constable who was arrested yesterday on charges of molesting a 50-year-old woman on the Malda district hospital campus."If the primary investigations are anything to go by, the woman was molested by someone else and the NVF constable was victimised. The man left the spot after molesting the woman and Mahato bore the brunt of the locals' protest," the Malda additional superintendent of police, Mr S Sarkar, said. Mahato, who was severely assaulted by the locals after the incident yesterday, is still undergoing treatment at the Malda district hospital. His condition is stated to be stable. The police, on the other hand, have planned to arrest those involved in ransacking the police outpost set up on the hospital campus. Yesterday, a group of people, backed by the Youth Congress activists, uprooted police tents near the hospital to protest against the incident. "The mob was provoked to attack an innocent Mahato. We arrested yesterday in a bid to calm the tension," said a senior police official. n SNS