July 18: The south Calcutta neighbourhood where Team India fast bowler Mohammed Shami lives with his young family has repeatedly given them reason to feel unwelcome, his wife Hasin Jahan said today.

From everyday irritants like being shouted at while trying to park their car in the available space to a dispute over papayas being picked from a tree within their compound, Shami's family has at various times come close to despair.

The last straw was apparently the abuse and threats by four men on Saturday night that forced Shami, just back from Team India's tour of the West Indies, to call police. The men had targeted the cricketer, who plays for Bengal in domestic cricket, because he was allegedly taking "too long" to park his BMW X1.

"We have always felt insecure here... we have been disturbed time and again, be it over a parking issue or other small matters. The only consolation is knowing that they will not be able to harm us since Shami holds a position in society," Hasin Jahan said.

Sources said that a team from Jadavpur police station had previously visited 128 Prince Golam Mohammad Shah Road to settle the papaya dispute. It is unclear who had accused whom in that incident.

The papaya tree still stands in the common area of the small compound that houses 12 apartments. The Shami family lives on the first floor of the G+3 building in this narrow lane behind South City Mall.

The trio arrested for abusing Shami and the building's guard on Saturday night are local youths, not political dadas or toughs. One of the suspects, Jayanta Sarkar, runs a meat shop by day and performs kirtan in the evening. His brother and co-accused Swarup Sarkar runs a hair salon. The third accused, Shivam Pramanik, used to work at the salon until this week.

The police said Shivam had tapped on Shami's car window, demanding to know why he was taking long to park the BMW. Now, if this can happen to an India cricketer, how unsafe is the common man? Anyone protesting a wrong risks having a miscreant landing up at the doorstep to settle it with threats and fists.

Kalyan Mandal, ICSSR senior fellow at the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta, blames the trend on growing economic disparity and greed. "Greed for materialistic gain is propelling this sense of lawlessness," he said.

Mandal also attributed incidents such as the one Shami faced to "partial failure" of the administration in curbing socio-economic crime.

Senior police officers said it was easier to handle crime stemming from an accused being emboldened by political patronage. A few weeks ago, members of a syndicate led by a man with a Trinamul connection had tried to intimidate party MP Sugata Bose.