Bengali actress Payel Mukherjee attacked by biker on Kolkata's Southern Avenue

Bengali actress Payel Mukherjee claimed she was allegedly attacked by a miscreant riding a motorcycle while she was driving her car on Aug 23 night in Kolkata.

The incident comes amid the raging protests over the alleged rape and murder of a trainee doctor at the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata on August 9.

In a video posted across social media, the visibly distressed actor is seen narrating her ordeal, saying the youth stopped his two-wheeler before her SUV and asked her to come out of the vehicle.

"As I refused to come out fearing for my safety, the man banged against the glass on my right side window and broke it into pieces injuring my hand," she said.

The bike-borne man who was detained by police following a complaint lodged by Payel, said that the actor's car grazed past his bike. Payel, however, denied that any such thing happened. The man apologized to the police for the incident.

"I don't know where we stand now. If a woman can be accosted and heckled in such a way in a crowded street in the evening that exemplifies the real situation. And this happens amid rallies taken out all over the city on the issue of women's safety," Payel, who has also worked in the south film industry, said in the video in Bangla.

"I shudder to think what would have happened to me had this incident taken place in a deserted spot," she said.

The incident comes to light as the entire nation is gripped in protests for the last 10 days against the rape-murder of a postgraduate medical trainee at state-run R G Kar Hospital.

The body of a 31-year-old trainee woman doctor was found in a semi-clad state which has sparked nationwide outrage.

Slamming the West Bengal government, the Bharatiya Janata Party posted Payel's video on the party's West Bengal official account on X.

“Now Bengali actress Payel Mukherjee goes live fearing for her life while being abused and attacked by a bike-borne assailant right in Kolkata's Southern Avenue. Wonder what State Home Minister Mamata Banerjee has just reduced Kolkata to a nightmare for women. And her adviser asking women to stay away from night duties,” the BJP wrote on the microblogging site.