Masked miscreants shot dead the driver of one of the two buses ferrying marriage parties, molested the women onboard and robbed the passengers at gunpoint on a highway in West Bengal's Nadia district.

The robbers stopped the two buses by blocking the highway near Ranaghat, the district headquarters, and shot dead one of the drivers when he resisted, police sources said on Friday.

The miscreants dragged out the men and tied them to the trees before taking the women to nearby buildings and molesting them. They then proceeded to loot the valuables, the sources said.

The incident occured at 0130 IST and there was no police patrol on the highway. Police said the victims lodged no complaint of rape but only of molestation.

The panic-stricken passengers rushed to the village of Aismali for help after the robbers left with their loot.

Twenty-eight people have been detained and 17 of them were later arrested and charged with murder and loot under section 396 of the Indian Penal Code, Deputy Inspector General of Police (Headquarters) N C Ghosh said.

Those arrested were locals and had criminal antecedents and five cartridges, cash, ornaments and a video cassette were recovered from them.