We had boarded the auto plying between

station and Garia crossing from Usha More to go to Garia around 7.20pm. My mother - who suffers from a major left-joint pain - is always forced to sit in the front beside the auto driver. I was sitting behind her. As soon as the other passengers got down, I realized my mother was feeling distinctly uncomfortable. I could see that the auto driver was deliberately sitting on the left-most corner of his seat. Usually, he shifts to the right corner when a woman is sitting in front.

A couple of minutes later, I found my mother almost hanging out of the auto, desperately holding on to the rod to keep from falling off, even as she tried covering her chest. I still kept silent as my mother did not reveal the intensity of the problem. My mother, obviously, was too taken aback to even think that someone would molest her in front of her own son.

As we approached Garia Pantaloons and the auto slowed down, she suddenly yelled and then jumped out of the running vehicle.

There were tears in her eyes when she told me the auto driver had continuously misbehaved with her. Hearing her shout, several passersby and a biker gathered at the spot. The biker blocked the auto (No. WB 19 D 6699) and the others present ensured that the driver did not flee. I rushed to the Garia crossing to get help from cops.

The additional OC of

police station was on his rounds there and he came with me. By then, around 70 auto drivers had surrounded us and the additional OC had to call up sergeants and the OC of the local traffic guard as reinforcements.

We went to the police station and lodged a formal complaint, which was turned into an FIR. When we came out of the police station around 10.30pm, we were not prepared for what awaited us. Around 200 auto drivers were loitering around the police station and we felt threatened. I found the accused driver (52-year-old Iman Ali Khan from Narendrapur) openly challenging cops to arrest him.

We went back in and when we looked out around 11pm, we found that the area had cleared. But just as we tried to board a rickshaw to go back home, about 60-80 auto drivers surrounded us. They kept threatening us to withdraw the case and used foul language.

By this time, my mother was in considerable fear - both for herself and for me since I usually take an auto on this route to get to work. Some of them then told me they would look into the incident once we withdrew the complaint. My mother blurted out that she would think about their offer and we were finally allowed to board a rickshaw. A little ahead, we found another 30 auto drivers taunting us using obscene language and threatening us. They said they would beat us up at a crossing. My mother literally jumped out of the rickshaw and we rushed back to the police station.

Even though the cops arrested the accused under IPC 354 (pertaining to molestation), my mother did not think it was safe for us to venture out and finally we were dropped home by cops in their car around midnight.

But our ordeal did not end there. We began getting calls on our cellphones asking us to withdraw the case.

Around 8.30am on Thursday, the auto union leader and their lawyer came to our house and tried to make my mother withdraw the complaint. I then called up the Netaji Nagar police, who got us in touch with the Bansdroni OC. He counselled by mother for around half-an-hour and even asked us to lodge a protection complaint. He said the Bandroni police would provide us full protection.

My mother could not sleep at night. She is living in fear and shock. But I have told her that we will not back down and we will not take back the case. I cannot let the accused escape the laws of the land.

(As told to Dwaipayan Ghosh)