West Bengal News: Bengali actor Payel Mukherjee was reportedly attacked by a man on a motor cycle in Kolkata while she was driving her car. The incident took place on Friday night. This comes as the city reels under continuous protests over the rape and murder of a trainee doctor in city's RG Kar College and Hospital.
The actor posted videos on social media narrating her ordeal. She claimed that she was allegedly heckled by a motor cyclist while driving her car on Friday night on a city road. A sobbing Payel in a video on Instagram said that a youth stopped his two-wheeler before her SUV on Southern Avenue and asked her to come out of the vehicle.
"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," she said in one of the videos. Local people came to her rescue and police detained the man following complaint lodged by Payel.
The man claimed Payel's car grazed past his bike but he apologised to the police for the incident. The actor denied something like that happened, news agency PTI reported.
"I don't know where we stand now. If a woman can be accosted and heckled in such a way in a crowded street at 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, who is also a known face in south film industry, said in the video in Bangla. "I shudder to think what would have happened to me had this incident taken place in a deserted spot," a visibly shaken Payel added, crying.
The incident happened as the city witnesses spontaneous protests for the last 10 days against rape-murder of a postgraduate medical trainee at state-run R G Kar Hospital.
BJP Slams Mamata Banerjee-Led TMC
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) slammed the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress (TMC) over the incident and actor's claims and said, "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."