Sajal Bhatta being taken away after his arrest on Thursday. Picture by Gopal Senapati

Chaitali Mallick, 30, took the Burdwan local into town on Thursday afternoon and was rushing for final rehearsals at Natya Akademi for a play called Drohi Sipahi.

But the member of a street theatre group had to first deal with a groping sipahi — she fought back and had him arrested — before she could play her part in the drama.

Chaitali reached Howrah station from her Dhanekhali home, in Hooghly, around 12.30pm and was making her way up the subway to a bus stand when she felt a hand groping her from behind.

She spun around and confronted a man in a dark shirt who tried to slip away.

But Chaitali grabbed him by the collar and slapped him across the face.

The man struggled to break free, but Chaitali held on. In the scuffle, she hurt her right knee and twisted her ankle, but did not let go.

Seeing the young woman taking the fight to her harasser, some passersby joined in and pinned the man down. As he was being dragged away, a few men in uniform turned up and asked them to let him go. Following an altercation, his friends beat a retreat.

The man later identified himself as Sajal Bhatta, an air force Group D staff at Kalaikunda.

“Bhatta is a lance naik at the air base in Kalaikunda. He has been arrested on charges of molestation,” said Niraj Kumar Singh, the superintendent of police (Howrah).

The air force man was brought to the GRP thana, from where he was sent to the Golabari police station lock-up. He will be produced before the chief judicial magistrate of Howrah on Friday.

After the incident, Chaitali received first-aid at Howrah District Hospital, before heading off for her rehearsals.

“Enough is enough. Women are put through such harassment on the streets every day. Unless we protest and fight back, this will never stop,” said the braveheart.

But wasn’t she scared? “I was so angry that the only thing on my mind was that I shouldn’t let this man go.”

Playwright-director Chandan Sen, in whose group Chaitali acts, said: “This is shameful. We are protesting the incident at Natyamela.”

nSee also Page 24