Television actress Kanika Mann has spoken candidly about an abusive relationship she endured during her college years, recounting multiple incidents of physical and emotional violence — including being slapped in a public corridor so hard that her newly pierced ears began to bleed. The actress made the revelations while speaking with fellow contestants inside the Bigg Boss house, offering a deeply personal account of an experience she says left her fearing for her life.

How the Relationship Began

Mann recalled that she had not been in a relationship until Class 12, and that relocating to Chandigarh for her first year of college gave her a sense of newfound freedom. She described the social atmosphere in her hostel and admitted that a fear of missing out prompted her to seek companionship. 'It's not like I'm in need of anyone. But I think it's FOMO. This can happen to me too. So I ran a Facebook account. The first guy who got a little bit of attention became my boyfriend,' she recalled.

Physical Abuse in a Public Corridor

Mann described her former boyfriend as 'a psycho' and 'an abusive man.' In one of the most disturbing incidents she recounted, he arrived unannounced at her classroom and slapped her in front of fellow students — solely because she was wearing a striped suit. 'He came to my class without telling me. Then he slapped me for wearing a striped suit. He slapped me in front of the whole corridor,' she said. Because she had recently had her ears pierced, the blow caused them to bleed. She added that no one in the corridor intervened to help her.

Control, Threats and a Knife

The controlling behaviour reportedly extended to snatching her phone, throwing it into a crowd, and discarding the keys to her hostel room. He would also use emotional blackmail, threatening to contact her father and reveal that he was her boyfriend if she did not comply with his demands. On at least one occasion he reportedly did call her father, though the call went unanswered. 'My father didn't pick up the phone. If he had picked it up, I would have been saved much earlier,' Mann said.

The situation escalated into a confrontation that Mann described as the most frightening moment of the ordeal. As she was entering her college department building, her former boyfriend — who had followed her from the hostel — grabbed her hand, pulled her back, and produced a knife. 'He took out a knife and cut the veins in the hand about 3–4 times, and the way he was abusive, I was scared he could kill me too,' she recounted.

Police Intervention and Aftermath

At that critical moment, Mann spotted an acquaintance named Arjun nearby and asked him to call the police. Officers from the university arrived within approximately two minutes. For the first time, she said, she saw genuine fear on her former boyfriend's face. He was subsequently taken into custody and, according to Mann, remained in jail for two to three days. However, his family members and relatives then contacted her and threatened her — not to request leniency, but to intimidate. 'They were not requesting, they were threatening,' she said.

Turning Point and Family Support

Mann credited studying law for roughly eight to nine months with helping her understand her legal rights and find the resolve to stand up for herself. She also expressed deep gratitude to her family, who she said supported her unconditionally once she confided in them. Kanika Mann is best known for her roles in the television series Guddan Tumse Na Ho Payega and Chand Jalne Laga, and has also appeared in Punjabi films and music videos. Her account inside the Bigg Boss house is likely to reignite conversations around relationship abuse awareness and the importance of bystander intervention on college campuses.