A woman and her male friend claimed that they were harassed on a suburban train in Kolkata on Saturday, IANS reported. The incident follows a case of alleged moral policing where a mob beat up a couple in a train compartment for hugging each other.
The altercation on board the Sealdah to Barrackpore train began when the woman and her friend requested a man to switch places so that they could sit together. The man reportedly refused to do so while citing that he wanted to sit close to a fan. He told the woman that the compartment was not a ladies compartment.
However, when the two stood up to de-board the train, the man reportedly sat in the seat that they had requested him to shift to. When the two confronted him about it, an altercation followed.
In her complaint with the Government Railway Police, the woman alleged that the accused mocked the clothes she was wearing and was told to “not speak too much” as “she was a woman”. The commuters allegedly said: “The metro case happened because of people of your generation.”
In a purported video of the incident recorded by the complainant, a man was heard saying, “Go home and sit on each other’s lap.” Another man is heard saying: “You are a woman, you are a woman, you are a woman, don’t speak too much”.
An unidentified Government Railway Police official was quoted as saying that they had initiated an investigation into the matter. “The accused is yet to be identified,” the official said.
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