Two men in a motorbike went to a house at Tiakati village under Sankrail police station at about midnight. Suspecting that the two were Maoists who came for extortion, the house owner raised an alarm and other villagers rushed in.
Many of the village people were awake at that time as a meeting on a local puja continued late into the night, the police said.
Seeing the villagers, one of the two men fled taking the motorbike while the other tried to run away.
The police, however, went to the village in the morning and faced the ire of the people.
They gheraoed the policemen for coming so late. Senior policemen later reached the village, pacified the villagers and took custody of the captured man identified as Dipak Mahto.
Explaining the reason behind late arrival, the police said it is a standard practice of policemen not to move near a forest in Maoist affected areas at night and the road to Tiakati village runs within a forest.