Why police failed to nab Borude

Dismissed senior inspector Arun Borude being found dead in the one place he was expected to be, his hometown Ahmednagar, has reinforced the question marks on the efficiency of the police force. Questions had been raised when he disappeared for over one-and-a-half months after his name cropped up in the rape of a minor girl.

Dismissed senior inspector Arun Borude being found dead in the one place he was expected to be, his hometown Ahmednagar, has reinforced the question marks on the efficiency of the police force. Questions had been raised when he disappeared for over one-and-a-half months after his name cropped up in the rape of a minor girl.

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Interestingly, the Mumbai police force is touted as being next only to the Scotland Yard in terms of investigative acumen and informer network. This is the same force that boasts an extensive intelligence (khabri) network, the tentacles of which supposedly extend to the farthest corners of the globe. But, when it came to tracing its own officer, the network got mysteriously jammed. The police claimed it had left no stone unturned while hunting for Borude, even in Ahmednagar. His death belies that.

“We made every effort to trace Borude. But he proved smarter,” was the excuse by a senior Mumbai police officer when asked about the half-hearted hunt. “Maybe he had visited Ahmednagar the same day he met with the accident,” the officer added. No senior officer wished to react ‘on record’. The police’s approach in bringing their errant colleague to book appeared half-hearted from the beginning.

An explanation is still forthcoming from the Powai police on the privilege extended to a police officer who was otherwise a rape accused.