India Uncut
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Friday, April 22, 2005
Care for a walk on Marine Drive?
The story of the day in all three Mumbai newspapers is of the 17-year-old collegian who went for a walk on Marine Drive and ended up being raped in the Marine Drive police chowky by a drunk policeman. She was hanging out at Marine Drive with some male friends – reports differ on whether there were one or two or three of them – when the cop, a fellow named Sunil More, asked them to accompany him to the police station. There, he took the girl inside, locked the door, and raped her.
The girl screamed, and I'm not sure what the boy/s who had been with her were up to, because all the reports state that passersby broke down the door, and eventually ransacked the place. As for the cop, Mid Day quotes a witness as saying: "The constable was drunk and came out of the chowky adjusting his belt. He was aggressive and appeared completely unconcerned with what had just happened."
I'd written about a similar incident, which ended in murder, a couple of months back, and I wouldn't be taken aback if nothing happened to that cop. I'm just surprised that the boys who were with that girl let the policeman take her inside that chowky. Perhaps they were young and naive. In time, they will learn that the typical Indian policeman is like this: undereducated, overworked, underpaid, sexually repressed, resentful of richer people, and drunk on power. It is a potent combination.
The girl screamed, and I'm not sure what the boy/s who had been with her were up to, because all the reports state that passersby broke down the door, and eventually ransacked the place. As for the cop, Mid Day quotes a witness as saying: "The constable was drunk and came out of the chowky adjusting his belt. He was aggressive and appeared completely unconcerned with what had just happened."
I'd written about a similar incident, which ended in murder, a couple of months back, and I wouldn't be taken aback if nothing happened to that cop. I'm just surprised that the boys who were with that girl let the policeman take her inside that chowky. Perhaps they were young and naive. In time, they will learn that the typical Indian policeman is like this: undereducated, overworked, underpaid, sexually repressed, resentful of richer people, and drunk on power. It is a potent combination.
