Police replaced a charge against the seven youths arrested for allegedly heckling a woman and the driver of an app cab with a harsher one before they were produced in a city court on Wednesday.

Charu Market police station had initially started a case of sexual harassment, the maximum punishment for which is three years in jail, against the seven.

However, before the accused were produced in an Alipore court on Wednesday afternoon, they were slapped with the charge of “assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty”. If convicted under the new section, they can be sent to jail for five years.

The other charges — voluntarily causing hurt, wrongful restraint, mischief and common intention — have been retained.

The Alipore court remanded all seven in police custody till June 21.

“We had sought their custody to find out whether more youths were involved in the incident,” an officer of Charu Market police station said.

Sources said a test identification parade should be conducted once the accused are remanded in judicial custody.

All seven are students and are aged between 18 and 20 years, an officer said. “They are giving different versions of the incident,” he added.

According to a purported statement by the accused before the police, the app cab driver was driving in a reckless manner and the car hit one of the bikes in a way that the looking glass was damaged.

The youths had stopped the vehicle at the Exide crossing to demand money from the driver, they apparently told the police.

They are also said to have told the cops that they had tailed the vehicle to Lake Gardens with the intention of collecting damages from the app cab driver.

“One of them said he had inserted his hand through the driver’s window to grab his collar when the driver rolled up the glass and his hand got stuck. It was then that his friends smashed the windscreen with a brick to scare the driver,” an officer said.

A video recorded by model Ushoshi Sengupta, who was in the app cab, shows one of the youths jeering at her when she asked them why they were not wearing helmets. The youth then shouted at the driver asking him to step out.

“Bahar nikal re (come out of the car),” the youth had shouted at the driver.

Ushoshi in her complaint has alleged that she was dragged out of the car and there were attempts to snatch her phone and delete the video she had recorded.

A senior officer said the accused had been slapped with a harsher charge to send a strong signal that everyone would have to follow rules.