Bengaluru slipper assault: Woman and husband apologise, falls at auto driver’s feet after FIR | Viral video

A video had recently surfaced on social media showing a woman hitting an auto driver with a slipper over a road altercation in Karnataka's capital, Bengaluru.

After the assault clip went viral and an FIR was lodged, the woman, who is from Bihar, and her husband apologised and touched the feet of the driver.

In the video posted on X, the 28-year-old woman, identified as Pankhuri Mishra, is seen repeatedly hitting the auto driver, Lokesh, with her slipper while he is recording a video of the incident. Pankhuri can also be heard saying in Hindi: “Yeh badtameezi kar rha hai, mera pair kuchla aur uske baad video bana raha hai (This man is misbehaving, he crushed my leg and then he is making a video)"

Lokesh, on the other hand, claimed that he started recording because the woman was arguing in Hindi instead of Kannada.

The incident took place at around 3 pm on Sunday outside Centro Mall in Bengaluru’s Bellandur area, when the woman and her husband, riding a two-wheeler, allegedly brushed against the autorickshaw while merging lanes.

According to media reports, an FIR was filed against Pankhuri Mishra on the basis of a complaint by Lokesh with the police, accusing her of the unprovoked attack.

The woman claimed that she got panicked as she is pregnant and felt uncomfortable when the auto approached their two-wheeler.

She also said: “We love Bengaluru, we love the culture and we love the people."

The assault incident drew sharp criticism from the public and sparked widespread outrage, with many social media users demanding strict action against the woman’s unprovoked act of aggression.

Here are some comments posted by X users:

“Pregnancy doesn’t give you the right to be violent and beat others."

“Under no context is getting violent justifiable. Just stop validating wrongs. It has become a practice now to first commit and grave mistake and then wiggle out of it by issuing an apology."

“Making a pregnant woman grovel and beg shows how much Kannada society has fallen and lost values."

“Most of the road rage happens because of such ego. One apology by the perpetrator at that moment can solve 90 per cent of road rage."