What started out as a simple ride in the Kolkata metro for a couple ended with an ugly slap in the face of young love. On Monday, the late night train, stacked with weary passengers witnessed a ruckus because a couple had dared to hug in full public view.
A young couple embraced in Kolkata metro. It made a bunch of frustrated old losers angry. They beat them up. Scenes of hatred are allowed. Scenes of love are considered obscene. pic.twitter.com/Jv4zNaMDe8
— taslima nasreen (@taslimanasreen) May 1, 2018
As the train reached Chandni Chowk, around 9.45 pm, an argument broke out between a young couple and an elderly man. The dispute started over the aged man asking the couple to “go to a bar in Park Street” or do “this” behind closed doors. An eyewitness account in the Anandabazar Patrika wrote, “Although the young man kept his cool while responding to the elderly man, the argument escalated to a level where they were dragged out of the train at the Dum Dum metro station and beaten up.
Tempers flared because the young man was “advised” not to emulate Salman Khan, which made the young man say, “Did everyone hear him calling me Salman Khan? I’m going to take this as a compliment.” That was it. This riled up the elderly man and a few others, who had gathered around him and thus launched the heated argument.
The situation got to the point where the verbal abuses followed by the physical assault on the young man kept going on, despite the woman standing between her partner and the mixed group of middle-aged and elderly men.
The eyewitness claimed that his attempts to intervene failed. However, a few of the onlookers stepped in and stopped the mob from assaulting the couple, who successfully escaped.
When India Today got in touch with the Kolkata metro authorities, they were told, “No passenger has registered any police complaint yet. Had any complaint been filed, we would’ve been able to inquire about the situation. We are, however, looking into it.”
Social media, however, was enraged as people condemned this episode moral policing
A bunch of old men beat up a young couple in Kolkata for hugging and being close inside the metro yesterday. Calcutta is no nostalgic safe haven. Calcutta bullies, Calcutta assaults, Calcutta makes you suffer. Just like any other city. But a group of young men and women…
— Sayantan Ghosh (@sayantansunnyg) May 1, 2018
Apparently, a couple was beaten up by aged metro co-passengers for hugging in the train. What’s with Kolkata and its increasing incidents of moral policing? #Kolkata #moralpolicing
— Simantini Dey (@Dey_Diary) May 1, 2018
Couple beaten black and blue (yes, the woman too) by a mob of oldies for hugging in a crowded metro. Yes, for hugging.
Shame, Kolkata. Never expected such downright disgusting moral-policing episode from you.https://t.co/JbgOwvDo6v
— Shreya (@ShreyaTeresita) May 1, 2018
