Singer Iman Chakraborty gets her tormentor arrested in Kolkata after verbal, visual abuse

KOLKATA: National award-winning singer Iman Chakraborty got a molester arrested late on Thursday night after the middle-aged tormentor harassed her with verbal and visual gestures while she was buying fruits on her way back home in Netaji Nagar.
Police said the tormentor, Ranjan Majumdar, was arrested within minutes of a panic call made by the singer and was charged under IPC sections dealing with attempts to outrage a woman's modesty and molestation after she lodged a complaint.

"Many have got so used to perversion that they don't even react to such abuse. But I am not that kind of a person. I would have done exactly this had it happened to any other woman. Using sexually coloured language is just not on," Chakraborty told TOI on Friday.
The incident had happened around midnight on Thursday when she was buying fruits at Gachhtala crossing in Netaji Nagar with her husband and friends after a game of badminton in the locality where her in-laws live. "Once the game was over at 12.30 am, we went to a fruit-seller. Then I heard this man telling the vendor to give me more apples and bananas," Chakraborty said.
The middle-aged man, wearing a dark grey shirt and a pair of light grey trousers with an unshaven look, allegedly continued to stare at her while making sexually coloured remarks. "His stare made me feel like an object of desire. Sexual abuse is not only about touching someone. I still can't forget the look in his eyes and can't get over the trauma," she said.
The singer immediately challenged the man and as an altercation ensued, some in the locality wanted to dissipate the tension and pleaded about his insanity. "They tried to say that he was imbecile and I should let him go. Insanity couldn't have made him gender selective. He chose to use sexually suggestive comments only when a woman was buying fruits and not in the case of men," she added.
She called the Regent Park PS, from where an officer reached the spot in 10 minutes and after learning about her ordeal arrested the man. The cops even took the fruit seller to the police station to record his statement and also told Chakraborty to head to the PS to lodge the official complaint. On her way to the police station, she even conducted a Facebook live to share her ordeal.
TOI spoke to witnesses at the Gaachhtala neighbourhood on Friday who agreed in unison that the man was constantly harassing the singer and said that he's a known tormentor in the area.
Fruit seller, Saifuddin Sheikh, who was a witness to the case, said Majumdar was a local resident whose wife and child have left him and that he lived in a one-room flat. "He often roams the streets till late at night, passing random comments and often picking up fights," he added.
(With inputs from Debobrata Shome)