Kolkata: A 26-year-old KMC contractual driver was hospitalized with serious head injuries following a violent assault triggered by a minor parking dispute near an eye clinic in East Santoshpur on Wednesday afternoon. One person has been arrested so far.The victim, Subrata Mandal, was accompanying Subrata Mazumdar (30), a resident of Nadia district, and Sujan Sarkar, an assistant director with the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) Borough XII. The trio had driven to the Aurobindo Eye Care clinic located at East Santoshpur around 2 pm.According to the complaint lodged with local police, the altercation broke out shortly after they parked their vehicle along the roadside.

A local resident, identified by witnesses as “Subha”, approached the group and angrily objected to the vehicle’s position, alleging it blocked the road.“We tried to explain to him that the car was parked temporarily along the side of the road without causing any obstruction to the normal flow of traffic and that we would move it shortly and this was only to accommodate some police vehicles coming from opposite direction,” Mazumdar said in his report to the police.However, the verbal argument quickly turned physical when the suspect violently shoved Mandal. When Mazumdar stepped in to de-escalate the situation, the assailant allegedly attacked him with fists and blows. Sarkar too was threatened.The confrontation escalated further when the suspect Subha ran into his nearby residence and returned with a wooden stick. He allegedly struck Mandal on the back of the head with the weapon, causing him to collapse with severe injuries. Bystanders and occupants of the vehicle managed to restrain the attacker and rescue the bleeding driver.The victims noted that during the assault, a woman believed to be the suspect’s mother repeatedly called out to him by the name “Subha,” aiding in his identification. Before fleeing or backing off, the assailant reportedly shouted severe verbal threats at the victims.Mandal sustained grievous head trauma and was rushed to a nearby hospital, where he remains admitted for treatment.Police have recorded Mazumdar’s statement and launched a formal investigation based on his complaint to track down and apprehend Subha, on charges of physical assault, criminal intimidation, and causing grievous hurt. Cops have denied that they had initially refused to lodge a FIR and that they became active only after Lal Bazar intervened. One person was subsequently arrested.