Bengali actress ‘heckled’ by biker on city road while driving

PTI, Aug 24, 2024, 8:56 AM IST

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Kolkata: Bengali actor Payel Mukherjee said 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 Facebook 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.

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.

“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.