Having covered many gender atrocities, it has been my observation that most lower-rung cops downplay such crimes. They usually humiliate the victim by saying she must be having an affair - “what were you doing in field” - and taunt parents for not keeping their girl in control.

An SP-level police officer told me once - “90% rape cases are false”. I cringed, but could not protest. The mindset of many policemen, especially in rural areas, is that if a woman is having an affair, she cannot cry rape either by her boyfriend or even his friend’s.

And it’s not the mindset of policemen alone, BTW. Cops are also part of the same society. Many parents also don’t take such crimes seriously. In a case I reported in Bihar, the family continued to send their little daughter to the tutor who molested her