Kolkata Metro moral policing case: Protesters offer free hugs at Dum Dum

A young couple was harassed and beaten up in Kolkata Metro, allegedly for hugging and standing too close at Kolkata Dum Dum Metro Station. However, no complaints were lodged with metro rail authority

Many concerned citizens staged a protest outside a Kolkata Metro station on Tuesday after a young couple was reportedly harassed and beaten up for "being too close" after boarding the metro train late Monday evening. A gathering of youngsters also offered free hugs to people outside the Dum Dum metro station. 

In an official statement on its Facebook page, Kolkata Metro said that it was trying to look into the incident, adding that no complaint had been lodged at the time of the publishing of the post. "We are trying to get to the bottom of it," said the organisation, adding that it was against "moral policing".

 

As a mark of protest against the Kolkata metro moral policing incident, a group of young protesters offered free hugs to people outside the Dum Dum metro station in Kolkata. The protesters said that hugging was not something visually perverted but a sign of affection. 
 

 
"A group of older men beat up a couple in Kolkata Metro for hugging and being too close. Just everyday bhadralok anger at a hint of pleasure punctures myth of Kolkata as some liberal utopia that not even it's most deluded citizen believes," read the twitter post of a citizen.

The young couple was reportedly bombarded with embarrassing questions followed by punches, kicks, and slaps.

"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," writer Tasleema Nasreen said in a tweet.

"Unfortunately there has been no complaint lodged as yet and this makes it very difficult to conduct an inquiry. Had there been some sort of a complaint from somebody, we could have proceeded," Kolkata Metro Railway CPRO Indrani Banerjee told IANS.

"It is becoming very difficult to get to the bottom of the incident," she added.

Asked how they would handle the protests being staged outside Dumdum Metro Station, she said: "I have just come to know about the protest. People are well within their rights to register their protest but this should not disrupt our services in any manner."

She also said that the metro railway is "against moral policing".