It took less than a year to convict the guilty—the crime was committed on April 21, 2005. And it didn’t happen in a fast-track court: a regular sessions court simply fast-tracked proceedings. And above all, it took 27 witnesses standing firmly by their original statements. And those accounts had been given to a police force which effected its biggest turnaround in recent times by keeping secret each of the 27 identities.

Among those whose testimonies clinched the verdict were the victim herself, a 17-year-old college student; a male friend who was accompanying her until minutes before the rape; and that of a Marine Drive building’s security guard who had first pointed out the victim and her friend to a supposedly intoxicated More.

Special public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam told reporters that he had urged the court to give More a life sentence. The state should appeal for a more stringent conviction, Nikam said.

Mumbai Police Commissioner A N Roy said: “Our stand has been vindicated, we have dealt with this case very firmly all along. We expedited the case. We had immediately dismissed More, we carried out an expeditious investigation, the trial has got over in a year. We are waiting for the full judgment. We will go to a higher court and ask for enhancement of the punishment. It should be at least life imprisonment.”

As it stands, Sunil Atmaram More, a former constable attached to the Marine Drive police station, will now serve 12 years’ rigorous imprisonment and will pay a Rs 26,500 penalty, to be given to the victim. These are the statements which led to the conviction:

THE VICTIM

Her statement as recorded on April 22, 2005. “On April 21, a friend and I were sitting on the promenade at Marine Drive when a watchman came and asked us to go to the police chowky, saying we had been indulging in indecent behaviour. When we visited the chowky, he noted down my name, telephone number and address and threatened to call my parents. I requested him not do so, but he asked my friend to bring Rs 5,000. My friend left. He then closed the door of the chowky and started drinking. He started molesting me and then raped me. I begged to be allowed to go, but he did not. He raped me wearing a contraceptive.”

HER FRIEND

His statement was recorded on April 21, 2005. “We went to the police chowky as instructed by the watchman where the policeman (More) asked me to bring Rs 5,000. When our friends followed us into the chowky, they were asked to leave. By around 7.30 pm, I’d managed to gather only about Rs 3,500. When I reached the chowky, I found a crowd of people around it. When I enquired, I was told that a girl had been raped and had been taken to the Marine Drive police station.”

THE FRIEND SHE RAN TOWARDS

Her statement was recorded on April 21, 2005. “I heard someone shouting for help from the chowky and a noisy crown around it. When I got there, I saw my friend. Spotting me, she ran towards me and said the constable had raped her. I shouted, demanding that the policeman come out from the chowky, but he wouldn’t. By then, other people had started abusing the constable too. In the meantime, a fleet of police vans came and a man in his 30s narrated the whole incident. The police immediately took More away in a van. My friend and I were also taken to the Marine Drive police station.”

THE GUARD

His statement was recorded on April 22, 2005. “Around 3 pm, as I was doing my rounds around Taraporewala Aquarium, I saw a couple getting cosy. More, who was sitting in the chowky, asked me summon them to the police chowky. I then told them that the constable had asked them to report in the chowky and accompanied them there. I informed More that this was the couple getting cosy and left.”

12 months after crime, he gets 12 yrs in jail

• April 21, 2005: Constable Sunil More, then attached to Marine Drive police station, raped a minor college student after locking her inside a police chowkie on Marine Drive

• April 24, 2005: More dismissed

• July 12, 2005: Chargesheet filed

• September 22, 2005: Trial begins in Sessions Court

• April 3, 2006: More sentenced to 12 years