Sadly, rapes in UP no longer shock

What to say of the police force this officer represents? For not only has the force, which boasts of being the world's largest such in uniform, with over 128,000 men and women, it is the same police of which more than 18 senior and junior rung officials and constabulary have been accused of raping women with impunity. Last July a woman was allegedly raped by a police sub-inspector at Kushinagar, 320 km from here.

The woman, a resident of Gaunahi village, had come to report a crime when she was held hostage and raped. The same month, another woman was allegedly raped by sub-inspector Kamta Prasad Awasthi in Lucknow.

What makes Uttar Pradesh stand out from other states in crimes against women is the total impunity and lack of fear for the law. No one seems safe and no place sacrosanct.

The mother of a rape victim was recently thrashed and intimidated in Etawah for "daring to go to the police." In Nagla Preetam in Farukkhabad district, neighbouring Kannuaj, the parliamentary constituency of Dimple Yadav, the wife of Akhilesh Yadav, a 14-year-old girl was torched by a young man, Shrawan Jatav, after he failed to rape her.