Software engineer Jyotirendra Ghosh is contemplating legal action against the CISF officer who allegedly assaulted him at Calcutta airport on Monday morning.

“We will not let the people responsible for beating me up and publicly humiliating my wife get away so easily,” Ghosh told Metro from Hyderabad. “We will be forced to take legal action against the officer, Shanti Swaroop, if he does not tender a written apology within two days.”

The CISF command at the airport, K.N. Tripathi, has denied the charge. “The allegations that our men had assaulted Ghosh and abused his wife are baseless,” Tripathi stated on Wednesday.

Ghosh’s brother-in-law Atindra Chatterjee had lodged a general diary with the Calcutta airport police on Tuesday, but no action has been taken against Swaroop.

Ghosh had first approached Hyderabad police but was told to contact their Calcutta counterparts. According to the complaint, Swaroop assaulted the techie after he protested a jawan’s misbehaviour with his wife.

When told about the CISF’s denial, Ghosh’s wife Ananya, also a software engineer working in Hyderabad, said: “There were at least 150 passengers who came to my rescue and later protested the assault on my husband by Swaroop and his colleagues. If necessary, we will contact them.”

Ananya alleged that Swaroop did not bother to hear them out before raining blows on her husband and hitting him in the stomach with a rifle butt.

“It’s strange that an officer who doesn’t care about rules has been put in charge of airport security. We are not criminals. My husband was assaulted just because he protested my ill-treatment at the hands of a jawan,” she said.

On Monday morning, Ghosh and his wife were waiting to board a Kingfisher airline flight to Hyderabad after spending their Puja holidays in Calcutta when a CISF jawan allegedly abused Ananya for leaving her luggage trolley near the check-in counter.

“Tumhara baap ka naukar hoon kya ke idhar trolley rakh diya? (Am I your father’s servant that you have left the trolley here?)” the jawan reportedly yelled at the woman.

When Ghosh protested, Swaroop emerged from a glass cubicle nearby and allegedly dragged him in. According to the complaint, Swaroop and three of his colleagues then thrashed Ghosh, who was set free only after other passengers burst into the room.

The Kingfisher flight, scheduled to take off at 7.20am, was delayed by 10 minutes.