A police officer has been suspended and two others have been showcaused for dereliction of duty in connection with the alleged harassment of a woman and the driver of the app cab she was travelling in early on Tuesday.

The officer who has been suspended is P.K. Bal, sub-inspector of Charu Market police station. Bal allegedly argued with the woman — model Ushoshi Sengupta — when she had gone to report that a group of youths was harassing her and the driver.

The police station did register Ushoshi’s complaint but a preliminary inquiry has revealed that she was initially discouraged to report the matter there because the spot where the trouble had started — the Exide crossing — was under Bhowanipore police station, officers said.

Partha Chatterjee, an assistant sub-inspector at Maidan police station, and Menan Majumdar, a sub-inspector at Bhowanipore police station, have been showcaused for their alleged conduct with Ushoshi that night.

Officers said Chatterjee was standing outside Maidan police station, less than 100m from the spot where the model’s cab came under attack, when Ushoshi approached him for help.

According to Ushoshi’s allegation, Chatterjee initially refused to act on the ground that the spot at the Exide crossing where the driver was being heckled was under Bhowanipore police station. He finally intervened following repeated pleas by the woman and two pedestrians.

“CCTV footage shows a woman walks up to Chatterjee and tells him something. A few minutes later, he goes to the spot and gets hold of one of the bikers. But they flee,” an officer said.

The third officer who has been punished, sub-inspector Majumdar of Bhowanipore police station, reached the spot after the bike gang had left.

“After arriving at the spot, he should have pursued the matter and registered a case so that proper action could be taken against the bikers. By not registering a case, a message was sent that anyone could do anything. As it was late at night, he could have taken down the woman’s contact number or the app cab driver’s number so that a formal case could have drawn up later. But he did not do any such thing,” an officer at Lalbazar said.

Another officer said Majumdar could have at least tried to identify the bikes. “Timely action by police could send a strong signal to the criminals,” the officer added.