A woman allegedly being stalked by an app cab driver on her way to the airport early on Tuesday had the “offender” arrested by making a phone call, thanks to a police officer who did not let jurisdiction come in the way of helping a person.

The woman, who lives in Behala, had booked an app cab from No. 14 bus stand, about 2km south of Taratala. When the car was approaching Burdwan Road, another app cab allegedly started tailing her car.

“The car did not have a passenger. At least twice it came so close to my cab that the driver had to pull shut the side-view mirror,” the woman told Metro over the phone.

That was how the two cars travelled for around 2km till the woman spotted a policeman in front of the Alipore zoo around 3.40am.

Only a few hours before, unbeknownst to the woman, another woman had been harassed by a bike gang at the Exide crossing and again in Lake Gardens but cops allegedly pleaded helplessness initially, citing jurisdiction.

The response of assistant sub-inspector Biplab Das, whom the airport-bound woman spotted in front of the zoo, was hearteningly different.

The cop from Alipore police station, who was part of a patrol team, gave the woman a patient hearing and took down the number of the other car that had by then sped past them.

Since the woman had a flight to catch, he gave her his mobile number and said she could call him if she wanted to register a complaint.

The woman did so after reaching the airport and the “stalker” driver, Arun Patra, was arrested the next day.

The woman tweeted after the incident, saying the officer “rescued” her. “Please ensure action against the car driver…,” she tweeted.

Calcutta police replied to her, saying the information had been shared with Alipore police station.

Patra was arrested in Behala’s Sarsuna. “He said he was drunk and admitted that he was tailing the car the woman was travelling in,” an officer said.

Patra has been charged under IPC sections 341 (wrongful restraint) and 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty).

A few hours before the woman from Behala was being “stalked”, model Ushoshi Sengupta and a colleague travelling in an app cab were heckled by helmetless bikers less than 100m from Maidan police station. When Ushoshi approached an officer standing outside the police station for help, he allegedly said the incident spot was under the jurisdiction of Bhowanipore police station.

Later that night, when Ushoshi went to Charu Market police station with the complaint that the gang had tailed her cab and harassed her again near her home, an officer allegedly initially cited jurisdiction as an excuse for not acting.

The Alipore incident showed that the spot of occurrence could not prevent the police from taking prompt action. The law states the police are bound to act irrespective of jurisdiction.

“I did not do anything special. It was late at night and the woman was clearly in trouble when she approached me for help. I could not have refused her,” Das told this newspaper.

Compared to the average Calcuttan’s daily experience with cops, Das is, indeed, an exception.

“The officer was extremely helpful. I can’t thank him enough,” the woman said.