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Kolkata: Bengali actor Payel Mukherjee ‘attacked’ by biker, posts video
Bengali actor Payel Mukherjee was allegedly attacked by a bike-borne miscreant while she driving her car on Friday night in Kolkata.
Bengali actor Payel Mukherjee was allegedly attacked by a bike-borne miscreant while she was driving her car on Friday night in Kolkata. The incident took place on Southern Avenue amid the ongoing protests in the city over the alleged rape and murder of a trainee doctor at the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata on August 9.
Payel Mukherjee posted a video on her social media platforms, in which she claims that a young man stopped his two-wheeler before her SUV and asked her to come out of the vehicle. However, when she refused to step out, the man smashed her car's right side window, causing injuries to her hand and leaving her visibly shaken.
Also read: ‘Just 17 women left at campus’: Kolkata rape-murder spread fear in RG Kar Hospital
“As I refused to come out fearing for my safety, the man banged against the glass on my right side window and broke it into pieces, injuring my hand…I don't know where we stand now. If a woman can be accosted and heckled in such a way in a crowded street in the evening, that exemplifies the real situation. And this happens amid rallies taken out all over the city on the issue of women's safety,” Payel Mukherjee is heard saying in the video in Bengali as she continued to sob in fear.
The actor added, “I shudder to think what would have happened to me had this incident taken place in a deserted spot.”
Payel Mukherjee also posted another video in which locals can be seen standing around the incident spot, as she captured the miscreant's bike details.
The police have detained the man after Payel Mukherjee lodged a complaint.
The man claimed that the actor's car grazed past his bike, news agency PTI reported. However, Mukherjee denied his claim.
BJP slams West Bengal government
The official X handle of West Bengal Bharatiya Janata Party also posted Mukherjee's video, slamming the Mamata Banerjee-led state government.
“Now Bengali actress Payel Mukherjee goes live fearing for her life while being abused and attacked by a bike born assailant right in Kolkata's Southern Avenue. Wonder what State Home Minister Mamata Banerjee has just reduced Kolkata to a nightmare for women. And her adviser asking women to stay away from night duties,” the BJP wrote.
Protests over Kolkata rape-murder case
The body of a 31-year-old trainee woman doctor was found in a semi-naked state in the seminar hall of RG Kar Medical College and Hospital on August 9. The autopsy report of the victim indicated that the woman was sexually assaulted before being strangled and smothered to death. According to the probe, after severely hurting and sexually assaulting the doctor, the arrested accused, identified as Sanjoy Roy, killed her by throttling and smothering her.
The gruesome incident sparked widespread outrage and led to protests within and beyond the medical community across the country.
On August 14, several women doctors carried out a candlelight protest in Kolkata over the incident. However, a mob entered the RG Kar Hospital campus - where the demonstrations were underway - and wreaked damage to the demonstration site, vehicles and public property. They also vandalised the hospital's emergency department, nursing unit, and medicine store and damaged CCTV cameras.
