KOLKATA: Actors
Koushik Sen and his son
Riddhi
were allegedly heckled and harassed by parking fee collectors at
Kolkata Airport
on Saturday.
The incident happened around 10.30pm when Riddhi was leaving the airport after picking Sen who was returning from a shooting in Bhubaneshwar.
The actors alleged the parking attendants misbehaved with them and asked them to shell Rs. 100 as the parking fee.
Vehicles entering the airport are allowed 10 mins of free stay to pick or drop passengers and leave. The actors claimed they were within the purview of the free period but were still demanded the fee.
"We were well within the free period. The men took advantage of the chaos and logjam near the parking kiosk and claimed the free time has crossed and asked us to shell out the money. When we protested they misbehaved with us and other fellow motorists who complained of the same," said Sen, who said he was returning home after shooting a film by director Kaushik Ganguly at Odisha.
The actors further alleged cops did nothing as a scuffle broke out between the attendants and the actors and other motorists who protested to pay the fee and misbehaved with the actors.
Police later arrested one of the parking attendants.
Complaints of extortion in the name of parking fee collection is not new in the airport. Last August green activist
Subhas Dutta
had raised a similar complaint and last month four parking attendants were arrested for allegedly assaulting a motorist who had raised the issue.
Earlier this week, police had shut down the parking fee kiosks after motorists complained of man-made logjams at the mouth of the kiosk to extort money and slated a slew of guidelines and posted policemen at the kiosks. But Saturday night's incident showed even as the cops made a deluge of promises to better the situation, nothing has changed at ground zero.
Stay updated with the latest news on Times of India. Don't miss daily games like Crossword, Sudoku, and Mini Crossword.Tamaghna Banerjee, a reporter from Kolkata, covers crime, aviatio...
Read MoreTamaghna Banerjee, a reporter from Kolkata, covers crime, aviation, human rights and politics. He has a keen interest in human interest and rural reporting. He has done his postgraduation in journalism and mass communication. He has a total of 14 years in journalism.
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