The house of a 20-year- old woman was set on fire by a mob in West Bengal’s Birbhum district on Wednesday following rumours that she was collecting data for the proposed National Register of Citizens (NRC).
Chumki Khatun and her family are now under police protection after the incident happened in Gourbazar village in the Mallarpur police station area, officials said.
However, police denied that the incident was linked to the NRC.
Ms. Khatun has been working for an NGO on contract. In partnership with an online firm, the NGO was training rural women to use smartphones effectively and Ms. Khatun collected some general data, as part of the training, local sources said.
Rampurhat sub-divisional police officer Soumajit Barua said, “We didn’t find any link to the NRC. The incident happened over some village matter. We have initiated an investigation, the situation is now under control.”
