Actress KANCHANA MOITRA, who was abused and assaulted at Siriti More in Behala while returning from a shoot around midnight on Monday, recounts her ordeal to Metro.

Like every day, I was returning home from my shoot for a mega-serial (Jarawar Jhumko , Zee Bangla) at Dassani Studio in Tollygunge. I live on Rai Bahadur Road and so took Siriti because that's a shortcut.

Just when we reached Siriti, someone hurled something at my car. I was sitting in the front seat, beside my driver. We stopped and rolled down the windows to see if any damage had been done to my car. Two drunk men then came towards us and accused my driver of almost running them over.

When I protested, a third man appeared and started abusing me in the filthiest language. I couldn't roll up the glass because he was already half inside. When my driver and I protested further, one of them snatched the car key and ran.

Can you imagine how helpless we were? We stepped out and walked towards the other hooligans. I begged and pleaded with them to return the key. The duo said they would do so on one condition. One of them said my driver should slap me. The other man said I should do squats. I was on the verge of a nervous breakdown; I almost did as told because I was determined to get back my car key.

The harassment went on for 25 minutes. There were a few people on the road, but nobody came to our rescue. I mustered some courage to tell them that I was an actress, but they would not listen to anything. They went on hurling the choicest abuses.

Just when I was about to give in to their demands, I spotted a police patrol car and ran towards it. The cops were a godsend. They immediately arrested the two men. The third goon, the Dada of the gang, is still absconding but I Am sure he will be arrested soon.

If you ask me what this horrifying incident has taught me, I would say that on Monday night I discovered a different Calcutta. It's not the Calcutta I grew up in, went to college, started working as an actress. Until this happened, I never felt insecure returning home late from a shoot.

I am shattered, scared, nervous, shaken.... I am scared to step out. I shudder at the thought of what might have happened to us if the cops didn't turn up.

These are criminals who roam our localities and go scot-free. The only way we can prevent such situations is by reminding people of social values. Every para should organise classes and teach social values to people.

When we were kids, our parents would say that if we saw anyone in trouble, we must help them. Nowadays parents ask their children to stay away from any kind of trouble. Had two persons come forward yesterday night, I think the hooligans would not have had the audacity to do what they did.

There were about 15 people around us, all of them were watching the incident silently. And this is a residential area dotted with highrises! There are people who return late at night from call centres in that area; it's unimaginable that something like this could happen.

As told to Kushali Nag