Two drunk armymen allegedly misbehaved with a woman and beat up policemen and security guards in a Park Street nightclub early on Sunday.

It was a near rerun of the events that ended in armymen going on the rampage at Park Street police station on the last night of 2006. This time, the armymen were not put behind bars and were, instead, handed over to the military police.

According to police, the armymen — who identified themselves as Major Ramnathan and Captain Ankit — entered the nightclub, inside a hotel, around 1.15am. “Trouble started when the duo, who were drunk, gestured to a woman, asking her to join them. The woman told her boyfriend, who protested against the behaviour of the two. The security guards at the nightclub requested the armymen to leave,” said an officer of Park Street police station.

The armymen allegedly jostled with the guards, prompting the hotel authorities to call the police. The officer-in-charge of the police station, Nisar Ahmed, and two other policemen rushed to the hotel. The duo allegedly also beat up Ahmed and his team. Sergeant Bedprakash Rai, who had joined the team, claimed that he was hit on the head and chest.

The team brought the two to the police station and seated them in the officers’ room. One of the armymen started throwing up. The policemen contacted deputy commissioner (south division) Rajesh Subarna, who called up the Fort William authorities. The duo were handed over to military police around 2am.

Subarna said: “We have started a case of manhandling against the armymen. We will find out how they entered a place reserved for couples.” He, however, refused to disclose the names of the armymen. “They were drunk. The names they gave us will have to be verified with their superiors.”

A preliminary investigation revealed that the two were from the sixth engineer regiment, based in Kanchrapara, North 24-Parganas. “The regiment was in the city for the past three days,” said a police officer.

At Fort William, group captain R.K. Das said: “It was a minor incident resulting from a communication gap. The bouncers of the nightclub misbehaved with the armymen.”

“Two male customers were misbehaving with two other customers in the club. The securitymen took them outside and handed them over to the police,” said a spokesperson for the hotel.

The police said the case was started on the basis of a complaint by the hotel authorities. “The woman did not lodge a complaint,” said Subarna.