It was just another night for Ushoshi Sengupta, former Miss India Universe, when she took an Uber to go home after a long day of work on Monday, June 17th night from JW Marriott Kolkata. However, her ride turned out not only to be horrific but also traumatic as she, her colleague, and the Uber driver were harassed by a group of boys who rammed into the cab. According to a report from NDTV
In a Facebook post that has now gone viral, Ushoshi recounted that night of horror and also posted pictures and videos of the boys harassing her and the car’s driver. In the post, Ushoshi writes that while taking the left turn from the Exide crossing towards Elgin, a few boys on a bike came in and rammed into the car. None of the riders was wearing helmets and after ramming into the car, they started yelling at the driver.
In a matter of seconds, there were 15 boys and all of them started banging the windows of the car while dragging out the driver and beating him up. It was then Ushoshi decided the stand up for the driver and started shooting a video of the incident.
When her protests changed nothing, Ms Sengupta sought help from the police at the Maidan police station, only to be turned away without help. The police officer, whom Sengupta approached for help stated that the incident did not fall under the above-mentioned police and she would have to report it to the Bhawanipore police station to get real help.
Somehow, Ms Sengupta convinced the police to come and help them out and save the driver from the mob. However, when the police approached the place, the assailants pushed away from the police officers and ran away. This is not where the story ends.
6 boys, three on each bike, followed the car and as her colleague was getting down in Lake Gardens, the boys attacked them again. This time they threw stones and broke the car, dragged Sengupta out and tried to break the phone to delete the video she captured earlier. It was when she started screaming and the locals came out that the boys left them alone.
Ushoshi again tired to lodge an FIR with the Charu market police station and was again refused on the grounds of jurisdiction. After a lot of arguments, the police officer in charge did take her FIR but rejected the Uber driver’s complaint stating that two FIRs cannot be lodged for a single complaint.
Seven Assailants Arrested After Facebook Post Goes Viral
Since her post went viral, the complaint was taken much more seriously and seven of the boys were arrested based on video grabs that Ushoshi shot on the night of the incident. Moreover, an inquiry has also been set up to find out the reason for not registering the driver’s FIR. Since the establishment of the inquiry, two offices were asked to show cause for their inaction and one was suspended from duty.
As for the boys, who attacked the car, a senior police officer was quoted saying that the ones who were arrested have been breaking the traffic rules for a long time and the police are working on catching the others with the help of CCTV footage.
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