Kolkata

KOLKATA: A gang of 10 bikers chased around Kolkata-based model Ushoshi Sengupta’s app cab through the streets of south Kolkata and harassed her — not once but twice — late on Monday night. The last round of harassment occurred after cops at a police station “refused to register her complaint” but, instead, referred her to the “right police station”.  

Cops from Bhowanipore arrived around 10-15 minutes later. It was past midnight by then and Sengupta decided to pursue the case on Tuesday morning and requested the cabby to drop her colleague and her off at their homes.  

But the nightmare was far from being over. “The boys had followed us till my colleague’s house and, right when we were dropping him at Lake Gardens, six of them on three bikes came and stopped the car. They pelted stones, smashing the window. They then dragged me out and tried to break my phone to delete the video. Luckily, local people heard my cries for help and came out. The boys then fled,” Sengupta recalled.  

She then called her father and sister; her own residence was just a lane away. They called cops, who came and asked her to file an FIR at the Charu Market police station. It was 1. 30 a. m. when she reached there but, instead of taking down her complaint, the cops there directed her to Bhowanipore police station where the first assault had occured.  

“I just gave up and started shouting at this point. There was no female police officer. The officer there finally took down my complaint after asking a lot of questions but refused to take the cabby’s complaint, stating that two FIR could not be taken for the same incident,” she said. Frustrated and hapless, she returned home. It was at 2. 30 p. m. on Tuesday that she posted the entire ordeal on Facebook along with a 20-second video clip.