Former Miss India Universe Ushoshi Sengupta was reportedly harassed by a group of men on Monday night when she was travelling back from a hotel with her colleague. This wasn’t all, the accused, Sheikh Rahit, Fardeen Khan, Sheikh Sabir Ali, Sheikh Gani, Sheikh Imran Ali, Sheikh Wasim, and Atif Khan Alias Mo. Samsad also damaged the cab Ushoshi was travelling in and assaulted the driver.
Revealing her ordeal, Ushoshi Sengupta mentioned in her post on Facebook, “Last night 18th June 2019 at around 11:40 pm I took an Uber from JW Marriott Kolkata to go back home after finishing work. I was accompanied by my colleague. We were taking a left turn from the Exide crossing towards Elgin while few boys in a bike (without helmet) came and hit the Uber. To which they stopped the bike and started yelling at the driver.
In a fraction of second there were 15 boys and they all started banging the car window and dragging the driver out. They dragged the driver and started beating him up. This is when I stepped out and started shouting taking a video of the incident. I ran across the street to Maidan Police station, I saw an officer standing and I requested him to come with me, he told me that this is not under them but under the jurisdiction of Bhawanipore Police station.
This is when I broke down I begged them to come or else the boys would have killed the driver. The officers came and held the boys saying ‘Why are you creating nuisance?’ The boys pushed the police officers and ran away. After everything was over two officers from Bhawanipore police station came, by then it was 12 a.m. I requested the driver to drop me and my colleague home and decided to take it up with the police station tomorrow morning.”
However, the matter did not end here. Ushoshi Sengupta further revealed that Sheikh Rahit, Fardeen, Sheikh Sabir, Sheikh Gani, Sheikh Imraan, Sheikh Wasim and Sheikh Aatif continued chasing the cab, and when the driver was dropping her colleague in Lake Gardens, the 7 goons blocked their car with their 3 bikes.
According to her post, “To my utter surprise, the boys followed us till my colleagues’ house and right when we were dropping him near Lake Gardens, Govt. Housing. 7 of the boys on 3 bikes came and stopped my car, threw stones , broke the care . They dragged me out and tried to break my phone to delete the video. My colleague jumped out of fear and I was completely shaken. I came out and started shouting. By now the locals had come out.”
The driver was severely injured during this assault by the goons. However, when Ushoshi attempted to file a complaint in the police station, she was unaware of the further ordeals. She lost her control when the police dilly-dallied in filing her complaints. To quote her post again, “The cops came told me to do an FIR at Charu Market police station. I went there and met the sub inspector who told me that my complaint will be only taken by the Bhawanipore police station. At this point I gave up and started shouting. 1:30 am. No female police officer at the station. After raising a lot of questions the officer took my complaint but refused to take the Uber driver’s complaint stating that 2 FIR’s can’t be taken for the same complaint and he told me that it’s against the law. My Uber driver insisted that he wants to do the complaint but the officers didn’t take it.”
This post spread like wildfire on social media and netizens bashed the Bengal administration left, right and centre for their gross inefficiency on this issue. Following the massive outrage, the Kolkata Police had to take action, and within hours, all the seven accused, i.e. Sheikh Rahit, Fardeen Khan, Sheikh Sabir Ali, Sheikh Gani, Sheikh Imran Ali, Sheikh Wasim and Aatif Khan were arrested. However, this incident poses a big question over the security of the citizens as well as the prestige of Bengal administration, especially the state police.
However, this is not the first instance, where the state police has dilly-dallied in nabbing culprits like Sheikh Rahit, Fardeen Khan, Sheikh Sabir Ali, etc.. Since 2016, be it riots, or murderous attacks on opposition workers, or even cases of sexual assaults, the way Bengal Police has cut a sorry figure in nabbing the actual culprits is nothing less than atrocious. Recently, the way Kolkata police responded to the assault on junior doctors in NRS Medical College also reflects this fact very well. Forget taking any action against the real offenders, the way Kolkata Police behaved with the victims triggered a nationwide outrage against the assault. The icing on the cake was provided by Mamata Banerjee’s absurd rhetoric.
A lot of people stress upon the fact that the state police might be treating the culprits with kid gloves. Only time will tell whether this is true or not, but going by the attitude of Kolkata Police on the assault case of Ushoshi Sengupta, it doesn’t look as if things are going to cool down anytime soon, forget improving the image of the police. These incidents are further damaging the image of West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, and going by the current situation, the road to 2021 is certainly not going to be easy for her at all.