A STAFF REPORTER Calcutta, July 19: A group of autorickshaw drivers today assaulted a young couple at a south Calcutta crossing before driving off with the wife to a lane where she was again attacked for daring to question one of them who had scraped their car.
Boutique owner Liza Biswas, 28, was whisked away in full view of motorists and a home guard on duty at Padmapukur on Sarat Bose Road around 5.15pm even as her husband Sandip, a merchant navy officer, was being assaulted by the other drivers.
Liza had got off her car, an Indigo Manza, moments earlier to stop an auto that had grazed their car while waiting at a traffic signal and damaged the right side of the bumper and the front wheel.
“I was still at the wheel when the auto driver pushed my wife and charged at her menacingly. I got off the car and he did the same to me. Suddenly, a group of auto drivers surrounded and started hitting me,” Sandip told The Telegraph.
In the melee, the merchant navy officer didn’t notice that a woman accompanying the prime accused had pushed Liza into the three-wheeler. As the auto sped away with her, bystanders screamed: “Niye gechhe… niye gechhe (They took her away).”
The auto driver who had damaged the Indigo Manza and his female accomplice apparently took Liza to a lane leading to a slum near the public vehicles department’s Beltala office, 200 metres from the crossing where Sandip was being repeatedly assaulted.
By the time the home guard who witnessed the incident had called Bhowanipore police station, another group of auto drivers joined the prime accused in allegedly molesting her. The woman who had forced her into the auto allegedly grabbed her by the hair and banged her head against the three-wheeler.
According to the complaint lodged by Liza and Sandip with Bhowanipore police station, a couple of elderly auto drivers came to her rescue and shooed away the rogue drivers.
Liza, who suffered multiple bruises, ran back to the spot where husband Sandip was still standing. “I was frantically searching for her and she was worried that I was still being beaten up. I spotted her running towards me right through the middle of the road. I sprinted towards her but she fainted before I could reach her,” Sandip recounted.
A team from Bhowanipore police station took Liza and her husband to SSKM Hospital, where they were given first aid. “Liza has bruises on her hands and legs. Her forehead is still swollen,” Sandip said.
Liza underwent a medical examination before she and her husband went to Bhowanipore police station to lodge a complaint.
“We have already got the auto registration number from witnesses and have launched a manhunt for the driver and his associates,” said an officer at the police station.
The unidentified driver and his associates, including the woman who had forced Liza into the auto, have been charged under Sections 354 (molestation), 323 (assault), 341 (wrongful restraint), 427 (mischief causing damage), 114 (abettor present when offence was committed) and 279 (rash and negligent driving) of the IPC. All are bailable offences.
The auto rickshaw drivers in Kolkata are a rule unto themselves. They obey no rules and act like crows when as eagle happens to come near its nest. Once I was walking on the road when a crow came and pecked me hard on the head. On looking for the reason, I found that its baby had fallen on the road and I just happened to go very near it. We have a mango and neem tree behind our verandah. One crow or other normally builds its nest in there trees. When the eggs are laid and the babies are hatched, we cannot go in the verandah for the crow pecks us on the head as soon as we go near the branch where the nest is. Just like that, these auto drivers gang up belligerantly to attack anyone who happen to question them. I think many Kolkatans must have faced their wrath some time or the other. They should be reined in. I suggest politicians stop interfering in the police's affair. I know this is a laughable suggestion. Alternately, since the administration is not taking requisite action, the high court may be asked to monitor the activities of these auto rickshaws who have become a menace to society.
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