When even women cops are molested, how safe can we be?

As if the rise in number of rape cases in the country wasn’t alarming enough, reports of women cops being molested are particularly disturbing and shocking. If the custodians of our society are not safe, one wonders how safe can the rest of us “commoners” be? Times of India reports that a woman police officer on probation in Kurla’s Vinoba Bhave Nagar police station was allegedly molested by her colleagues. A police inspector and a constable have been suspended after the victim, a sub-inspector, lodged a complaint of molestation and outraging her modesty. [caption id=“attachment_274889” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“If the custodians of our society are not safe, one wonders how safe can the rest of us “commoners” be? Danish Siddiqui/Reuters”]  [/caption] On Thursday, Mumbai police commissioner Arup Patnaik suspended inspector Dilip Mangaonkar and his orderly, Ashok Bhalekar, for misbehaving with their colleague and making lewd gestures at her, the TOI report adds. The victim, who stays at the Nehru Nagar police quarters, said last November, that Mangaonkar, who had been chasing her for a while, visited her house and allegedly touched her inappropriately. “He came to my place and when I opened the door, he touched my hair. He said I looked like Isha Koppikar as well as another model and forcibly put his hand around my waist. The orderly, Bhalekar, who works under Mangoankar, too misbehaved with me,” the TOI quoted the victim as stating in her complaint. In an encouraging departure from what _Firstpost_ had earlier noted with cops giving their own perspective (read illogical) on why women become targets of rape, on this occasion a police officer lauded the courage of the victim, saying, “It’s great that a probationary officer dared to lodge a complaint.”