KOLKATA: A 20-year-old South Korean student was molested on a bus to Howrah station — the busiest route in the city – early on Monday morning.

This is the third time in just 10 days that a foreigner has been the victim of sexual abuse in India — a Swiss adventurist was gang-raped near Gwalior on March 16 and a British woman jumped from her hotel balcony in Agra to escape a rape attempt on March 19.

The Korean student was going to one of her most favourite spots — the Jagannath Ghat flower market on the banks of the Hooghly — when she was attacked. And she wasn’t alone then. She had boarded a Route 18B minibus from Thakurpukur at 6.30am along with her Korean flatmate and two local friends, including a man she calls “kaku (uncle)”.

“I love the Hooghly and the flower market is one of my regular destinations. It’s just so pretty,” the Korean woman told TOI in fluent Bengali. “I was the last in our group to board the bus. A gang of about 15 youth had queued up behind us. One of them groped me when I was stepping on to the floorboard. I was shocked and dazed for a few seconds,” she recalled.

She then turned around to challenge the molester. But instead of relenting, he and his friends — all 15 of them — surrounded the girl and her companions, threatening and abusing them. “We were outnumbered and this emboldened the youth to go on harassing us. They thought I don’t understand Bengali. When I countered the main culprit in Bengali, he mocked me. They were using filthy words. The bus conductors, too, did not dare challenge them. We felt so helpless,” said the victim.

The bus rolled on and the taunts continued — for nearly an hour. Fearing that any further protest would provoke an assault by the group, the victim and her friends bore the trauma in silence. But she had made up her mind to teach them a lesson. The first time policeman she saw was on Strand Road near the eastern slope of Howrah bridge. She jumped off the bus when it slowed down to pick up passengers and ran to the cop. A traffic sergeant on patrol also came to her help.

The policemen acted swiftly. The molester and his friends also got off and were joking among themselves, unaware that police were in pursuit. On seeing the Korean with cops, they tried to escape but were chased down within minutes. Burrabazar OC Subhendu Barik was on patrol and rushed to the spot. “Police did not waste a moment otherwise the gang would have escaped. I identified the culprit. I hope he will never again dare harass a woman,” she said.

The prime accused has been identified as Sujit Mondal from East Midnapore. He and his friends work with a catering agency. Mondal has been charged under non-bailable sections, said DC-central D P Singh. He has been remanded in jail custody till April 2.

The student and her flatmate have been in Kolkata for about four years now. They extended their visa so that they could “imbibe Bengali culture”. They are also involved in the activities of a church in Thakurpukur. Locals say the Korean duo would wear only salwar kameez, and interact in Bengali.

“Living in Kolkata has not been very easy. We have been taunted and mimicked. People stare. But that is understood because we come from a different ethnic and cultural background. But we always thought that Kolkata was safer for foreigners than Delhi or Mumbai. Today’s ordeal has left a very bad impression on my mind,” said the victim.