The Crime Branch’s starting question of the probe into the alleged rape and extortion by three personnel attached to the Sakinaka Police Station mars the optimism generated by the alacrity with which Rakesh Maria acted when informed of the incident. ‘What was the victim doing at the hotel in the wee hours of the morning, in the first place?’ looks, for all practical purposes, the starting point to build up a case for acquitting the three policemen. This apprehension is strengthened by the police’s insistence on a fresh medical test to indicate, if not determine, the veracity of the rape allegation.

Let’s not draw erroneous comparisons - this case is NOT like the one which happened in the Marine Drive police chowky in 2005. Constable Sunil More had been charged and convicted for rape, but that’s where the similarity ends. As more tawdry details emerge, it’s now clear that the Sakinaka case is one of rogue policemen - members of an elaborate extortion racket, who have routinely misused the powers vested in them by the Bombay Police Act and the Immoral Traffic Prevention Act (ITPA). It is almost like a legally empowered vice squad operating without any accountability. The very fact that they threatened the victim with charges of prostitution and booked her for public indecency under Section 110, bears testimony to this fact.