Armed bike gang revs into puja venue, molests women

Howrah: A bikers’ gang rode into a community puja, molested and attacked women participants and thundered away in Shibpur, Howrah, late on Saturday. The incident happened 100 metres from the police barracks, but residents say no cop turned up to help, despite repeated appeals.
Locals blocked GT Road near Shibpur Bazar for most of Sunday, causing traffic snarls, until the police registered an FIR and started intestigations in the afternoon.
Traders of the Shibpur Bazar area had organized a Raksha Kali puja on Saturday evening, which is an annual event for them. It is routine for women and children to participate in the puja. Around midnight, three bikers sped from Mandirtala towards GT Road, zooming past the puja venue. There were three to four riders on each bike, none of them wearing helmets, and the bikes’ silencer pipes had been taken off, causing the bikes to create a cacophony that shattered the silence of the night.
Noticing the women, they rode into the crowd, revved up the engines and started passing lewd comments at them. When the men protested and caught hold of one biker, the two others escaped, but not for long. They came back with more people from the neighbouring Bagdipara. The gang came brandishing iron rods, hockey sticks and daggers at the unarmed puja organisers. When the men protested, they went straight for the women, hitting and molesting them. Some of the women were pinned to the road and rained with punches. Many were pulled by the hand and dragged along the road. The women started shrieking in terror when local people gathered and tried to drag them out of their attackers’ clutches. One of the organisers, Abhijit Majumdar, received a deep gash on his cheek. Many others sustained serious injuries when they tried to protect the women. Some men repeatedly tried to get the cops to rush to the spot. “This went on for at least 40 minutes. Finally, when the cops arrived, the attackers vanished,” Majumdar complained.
Locals blocked GT Road in the morning till the Shibpur police station swung into action, took an FIR for four unidentified assailants. “We have identified them but are yet to arrest them because they are absconding,” police said.