A 69-year-old man was the redeeming face of conscience and courage in a crowd of around 40 people that witnessed a young woman being hounded and her husband thrashed by four assailants in Kasba on Wednesday.

Neville Vincent, a resident of Prasanna Naskar Lane, risked personal safety to step in and save the couple after realising that nobody else would. He pushed two of the assaulters away, took a blow with an iron rod, punched the man who had struck him and pulled the 22-year-old woman and her husband inside the relative safety of his house.

Neville then got into an argument with the assaulters just so that the men wouldn't flee till help arrived. The police came late, of course, after six distress calls by the woman to the helpline 100 failed to arouse a modicum of responsibility and urgency in the men in uniform.

That the incident occurred barely 500 metres from Kasba police station only heightens the ridiculousness of how the police handled and responded to the distress calls, at least one of which had landed in Barasat in North 24-Parganas rather than the Lalbazar control room.

Neville said on Friday that he "felt betrayed" on hearing that two of the four men arrested for the assault had been granted bail and the other two were still at large. The retired confectioner, who lives in a rented house with a relative, recounted to Metro how courage sought him out in the face of fear.

It was around 5.45pm and I was walking back home from a shop when I saw four youths severely beating up a man who was lying on the road just outside my gate. A young woman was on her knees, crying and pleading with them to stop. After taking a few slow steps towards them, I saw the youths shift their attention to the girl. They started slapping her.

My first instinct was to stay out of trouble, more so because of my age. There were several others who were watching the scenes unfold from a distance, some from terraces or through windows.

I was overwhelmed by what was happening in front of my eyes. The youths were abusing and kicking the man and the couple's helplessness as the brutal attack continued was heartbreaking. I could not control myself and stepped in.

Had I not, who would have helped them that evening? They would probably have been killed.

I shouted and pushed two of the youths who had pounced on the man on the ground. Seeing me come forward, one of them warned me: " Ei buro! Sar eikhan theke, noile mere haat paa bhenge debo (Old man! Move away or else we will break your hands and legs)."

I retorted that I could still stand up to all of them and that they should let the young woman go.

The woman stood up and told me that she was being harassed by the men and since her husband had protested, they were beating him. I asked her to remain calm.

I looked up and saw three young men of our neighbourhood, all of them known to me, watching us from their third-floor window. I asked them to come down and help me in saving the couple, at which all three immediately went inside.

I was about to give the woman the key to the iron grille of my house when one of the men pulled her by the hand and another tried to hit her with an iron rod. I raised my hand to block the blow and the rod landed on the back of my hand. With my left hand, I punched the man in the face and he staggered and fell.

I quickly opened the gate and pushed the woman inside. The assailants turned on me immediately and I shouted that if any of them dared to hit me, I would let my two dogs loose.

They were already barking from inside the gate and the men were startled as I pulled up the woman's husband from the ground, took him inside my house and locked the gate.

The assailants went berserk. They began kicking and hitting the gate with the rod and threatened to use bottles of acid to set my house on fire if I did not let the couple out immediately.

One of the men took out some petrol from the couple's motorbike, which was lying on its side, in a plastic glass and poured it on the two-wheelers. He asked his friend to set the motorbike ablaze but none of them was apparently carrying a matchbox. Then they found a discarded matchbox that had only a couple of sticks. They tried to use it but the matchsticks were damp. They then began smashing the bike's oil tank with a brick.

I asked the woman to dial 100 while trying to keep the men from fleeing by taunting them from inside. They all looked drunk and I was certain they would not leave if I continued hurling words at them. The men threatened to kill me, said they were members of the ruling party and even threatened to blow up my house with a bomb.

The police arrived sometime later and caught three of the men while one managed to flee. In the melee, another of the goons freed himself from a policeman's grip and ran.

When I learnt today that the two arrested men were out on bail on Thursday itself, I seriously felt betrayed. How could they let them go so easily?

I fulfilled my moral responsibility towards someone in distress but what about the police? If they continue to let go of such criminals so easily, they will never learn a lesson.

And Neville Vincent cannot be there always.

What message do you have for Neville? Tell ttmetro@abpmail.com