A young couple returning home from work were obstructed and threatened by nine men on three motorbikes after the woman had protested against two of them urinating on a pavement near Menoka Cinema on Friday night.

The 29-year-old graphic designer and his 25-year-old wife, a lawyer, were riding their scooter along Sarat Chatterjee Avenue around 9.30pm.

“My wife spotted two men standing on the pavement and urinating over a neatly painted railing (of Rabindra Sarovar) and protested. We did not stop,” said the husband, who has his office in Kasba. “She shouted, asking them ‘is this the place to urinate’ as our scooter passed them.”

He added: “But as we waited at the next signal, which was red, the two men appeared with seven others on three bikes. Two of the bikes blocked our way in an intimidating manner. The men started abusing us.”

The husband said the men appeared in the mood for violence. “But just when we thought things were getting out of hand, a traffic cop appeared and asked what the matter was,” he said.

Sensing trouble, one of the bikers said “toder dekhe nebo (will teach you a lesson)” before they sped away just as the signal turned green.

Police sources said the couple had noted down the number of one of the three bikes. A search has been launched.

The couple, who chose to protest unlike many others who witness such scenes in the city every day, said they crossed the stretch daily and would be a “little scared” after what happened on Friday night.

“Every day we see men sitting along the main road, passing remarks at passers-by. I would prefer to make a detour instead of going through that stretch again with my wife,” the husband said.

“I don’t know what they would have done to us on Friday had the police not arrived on time.”

Based on a written complaint from the couple, Tollygunge police station has started a case under charges such as criminal intimidation and wrongful restraint.

The state government recently amended a Calcutta Municipal Corporation Act, raising the maximum fine for littering public places from Rs 5,000 to Rs 1 lakh and the minimum fine from Rs 50 to Rs 5,000.

But civic officials said the offence of open urination, a nuisance across neighbourhoods, did not come under the new amendment.

Urinating in public can, however, be punished under Section 41 of the Calcutta Suburban Police Act, which treats the offence under “disorderly conduct”. The fine is Rs 100.