24-year-old Arup Bhandari died in a hospital in Howrah
Five days after he was beaten up for asking a group of young men to stop their lewd comments against women, 24-year-old Arup Bhandari died in a hospital in Howrah, 10 km from Kolkata.
A few days ago, Arup was part of a procession that was taking an idol of Goddess Saraswati for immersion in the Hooghly river on the occasion of a local festival.
Some bystanders sexually harassed the women in the procession with obscene remarks. Arup and his friend asked them to stop. On his way back home, late at night, Arup was hit relentlessly on the head with iron rods by the men he had confronted earlier.
Mr Bhandari was rushed to hospital with severe head injuries and went into a coma. His family has filed a police case, but so far, no arrests have been made. Relatives claim that the police initially refused to accept their complaint, and that it was only after locals surrounded the police station in protest that they registered an FIR or First Information Report.