GUWAHATI: A video clip purportedly showing the daughter of a former Assam chief minister assaulting a driver has surfaced on social media, with the woman alleging that the driver used to verbally abuse her while intoxicated.
The video clip showed a man kneeling down, with Prajoyeeta Kashyap, the daughter of ex-CM Prafulla Kumar Mahanta, hurling abuses at him and also hitting him with a slipper.
It was filmed on the campus of the high-security MLA Hostel in the Dispur region in Guwahati, with other personnel watching the incident.
As the video went viral on social media on Monday, Kashyap claimed that the man was a driver who had been working for their family for a long time. But he is always drunk and passes comments on me. Everyone knows about it. We tried to make him understand, and told him not to do so. But it crossed all limits when he started pounding on my door at our house today, she said.
When asked why she had not filed a complaint with the police, Kashyap avoided giving a direct response. She explained that, in most cases, a woman's character is questioned when such issues arise.
She also declined to specify with whom the driver was associated, instead raising concerns about women's safety in public spaces.
It remains unclear whether the driver was a government employee or personally hired by the family.
Prafulla Kumar Mahanta, the former president of the Asom Gana Parishad, is no longer a legislator but has been allowed to stay at the MLA hostel with his family.
Mahanta served as the Chief Minister of Assam twice: first from 1985 to 1990, and again from 1996 to 2001.