A mob set ablaze the house of ration dealer at Deganga on Monday accusing him of selling ration items in the open market instead of distributing it to ration card holders. When a police contingent arrived in the area, agitated locals hurled stones at policemen, injuring five of them. The injured were rushed to Barasat hospital where they were discharged after first-aid, additional SP Sugoto Sen said.

Later, RAF personnel were called in the area to prevent any untoward incident, the ASP said. In a separate incident at Haroa in the same district, a BDO's office was attacked when he was attending a meeting with ration dealers on Monday, in which the sub divisional police officer was injured. In South 24 Parganas, residents of Jaynalerkhet village near Kultali ransacked the house of a ration dealer on Monday. Angry locals looted 17 sacks of rice from a ration dealer's house at Bapujinagar in Kakdwip area late on Monday night. Four persons were arrested in this connection. With this, at least 400 sacks of rice were taken away from five ration shops in the district in the last three days, police said.