Jean-Fredric Chevallier and wife Sukla Bar at their Bansdroni home on Friday evening. (Aranya Sen)

Calcutta was a home away from home, safe and sensitive, for French national Jean-Frederic Chevallier and Sukla Bar Chevallier. Till Kali Puja 2010 came calling with cuss words and death threats from a para club in Bansdroni, demanding chanda and spreading terror. Jean, who runs an NGO, narrates his trauma.

nIf you want to stay here, you better do what we tell you to.

nWe will burn your flat down.

nYour foreigner husband will be beaten up and left to die on the streets.

I am scared. These words haunt me. This is a Calcutta I had never imagined existed.

We moved to our first-floor apartment at Dreamtop Residency in Bansdroni on October 3, 2009. A few days later, just before the last Kali Puja, some local club members (Joysree Club, near Joysree Kali mandir) came around to ask for Rs 5,000 as chanda

My wife explained that we had just moved in and were still unemployed — [Jean is in his sabbatical year from the National University of Mexico, where he teaches theatrical studies. The couple have since set up an NGO, Trimukhi Platform] — and so we would not be able to cough up such an amount. For months, whenever my wife passed the club, the youths would ask her about the money. Slowly that stopped and we forgot about it.

On the afternoon of November 6 this year, the bell rang. Loud and incessant. My wife opened the door to find around 30 young men crowding around. One of them was armed with the club chanda book.

“Give us the Kali Puja chanda,” they growled. When my wife protested, one of them shouted: “If you want to stay here you better pay up.” With the youths becoming aggressive with every passing minute, I stepped forward and told the leader — a young man called Raja — to be more respectful towards my wife.

The youths suddenly turned on me. In the scuffle that ensued, I was shoved around and my spectacles fell to the ground.

The abuses and threats flew thick and fast — from killing me (“a foreigner”) to burning our house down.

After they left, I called the consul of France in Calcutta and was advised to go to the local police station. Later in the afternoon, we learnt that the club members were using terror tactics on several other residents of our building.

The night before, a young woman was harassed by them at 1am when her husband was away. Then, an aged and ailing woman on the floor above was accused of feigning her illness and threatened that she pay up or watch her son being beaten up. A couple with a baby were insulted and threatened.

But no one dared protest.

The building committee even urged us not go to the police. But on Sunday morning, we went to the Regent Park police station and lodged a complaint (GD No. 436).

We have donated money to many small pujas who are happy to receive whatever we can afford. We aren’t opposed to giving donations for a cause but we refuse to be browbeaten by a group of para toughs.

But yes, we do feel unsafe. My wife and I never step out of home alone. If something happens, it will happen to both of us, together.