Aug. 3: An elderly couple and their son were assaulted outside their home in Kasba last night after the father protested against a group of young men drinking in the open, a growing nuisance many Calcuttans suffer in silence.

Kalyaneswar Ganguly had stepped out of home around 11pm to look for his son Kaustav, who was late in returning from work, when he found the accused drinking right outside his gate that overlooks a lane called Garden Road.

He chided the men, still perched on their parked motorcycles, at which they rained abuse on him. Two youths then walked up to Kalyaneswar, who is in his late 60s, and asked him what his problem was if they consumed alcohol in the open. The former employee of the Calcutta State Transport Corporation had barely responded when they allegedly landed a couple of punches on his left eye.

Kaustav arrived moments later and the youths allegedly held him from behind so that he could not help his father get up. His mother Ashima took a blow when she ran towards her husband.

Based on Kaustav's complaint, the police today arrested two men identified as Shankar and Sona. They have been booked for "causing grievous hurt by dangerous weapons or means" and "criminal intimidation" under sections 326 and 506 of the Indian Penal Code.

The Gangulys said they were scared to live in their own neighbourhood for the first time since they set up home several decades ago. "My father bought the plot in 1957 and we have since been here. This used to be a nice place to live in and spend my life in retirement. Not any longer," Kalyaneswar told Metro. "They pounced on us like hingshra prani (ferocious animals). We are feeling very insecure."

Several other residents said the character of their neighbourhood had changed after a section of youths started frequenting the local Haltu New Boys Club on the edge of a pond.

Most of these youths would gather around the bank of the water body by late evening and start drinking in the open. The majority of them, the residents said, were members of syndicates supplying construction materials to housing projects along the realty swathe from Dhakuria to Haltu in Kasba.

Almost every evening, residents walk down Garden Road in Haltu quietly absorbing the drunken cacophony that rents the air.

Until Kalyaneswar gave voice to his disgust last night, nobody had protested. "Our house was burgled this March. The police came and so did a representative of the local councillor. He asked me to socialise and visit the local club," said Kaustav, who had returned home from work later than usual last night.

Councillor Tarun Mandal of Ward 105 said he did not know that drinking in the open was "a problem" in his area. "I have not received any complaint from the residents yet," he told Metro. "If there is a problem, the law will take its own course."

The plight of the Gangulys is not new in today's Calcutta. Drinking in the open by bike-borne youths is apparently the new normal while those who have a problem with it dare not protest for fear of retaliation like the Ganguly family faced.

In parts of Kasba, Tollygunge, Karaya, Ballygunge, New Town, Dum Dum, Salt Lake and Behala, citizens said drinking in the open was common but police patrol teams rarely seem to spot them. "Earlier, someone drinking in the open would try to conceal his bottle. Now they don't even try to hide what they are doing. The scant regard they have for other people is numbing," said a resident of Behala.

Adda sessions fuelled by drink often continue well past midnight, sometimes triggering quarrels that pulverise the locality.

Around midnight on Wednesday, a middle-aged couple faced an assault on James Long Sarani near Jadu Colony when the man protested against dangerous driving. The accused were allegedly also drinking inside the car. They stepped out and attacked the couple before a police team came to their rescue. The car sped away.

In February, a woman in her 30s had been molested and her father assaulted when the family protested against a group of men drinking and hurling abuse outside their house at Hatiara in New Town, just beside the 30C bus stop.

A month later, a man named Rakesh Mukherjee was beaten up for protesting against a group drinking in the open in the Dum Dum Cantonment neighbourhood.

So, why are the police looking the other way? Officers in several police stations said on condition of anonymity that most of the rabble-rousers enjoyed political patronage and knew that the occasional crackdown would not affect them. Cases are sometimes filed and arrests made, but the menace continues.

"Based on Section 68 of the Calcutta Police Act (causing annoyance to a member of the public), the maximum fine for drinking in the open is Rs 100," said an officer. "That is hardly a deterrent."