An angry mob tore apart the Marine Drive police chowki this evening after finding a drunk police constable raping a minor inside.Constable Sunil Atmaram More (32) was caught after the girl’s screams alerted passers-by. He has been charged with Sections 376 and 342 of the Indian Penal Code for rape and wrongful confinement.More, who was recently served a memo by Senior Inspector Isak Bagwan for drinking on duty, had allegedly asked the girl, a 16-year-old college student from Chembur, to accompany him to the chowki after spotting her walking down the Marine Drive promenade with a male friend.Witnesses who spoke to the boy said More — his wife is eight months’ pregnant — made the boy sit outside, took the girl inside the chowki, and locked the door. ‘‘It was around 5.50 pm. I was walking towards the Marine Lines railway station when I heard the screams,’’ said Shiv Kumar Tiwari, a pandit. By then, a large crowd had gathered outside the police station. According to eye-witnesses, after a few minutes, a drunk More, stepped out and began hurling abuses.‘‘Nobody can harm me, I’m with the Mumbai Police’ More said in Marathi,’’ said Qayyum Shaikh, a Congress activist who was on his way to the Mumbai Regional Congress Committee office in Nariman Point when he heard the girl’s screams. He informed the Marine Drive police and the media.Within minutes, the police rushed to the spot and took the girl, her friend and More to the Marine Drive police station in two vans. The crowd vented its anger on the chowki and tore it apart in 10 minutes.‘‘It’s a shameful incident,’’ said Joint Commissioner of Police Ahmad Javed who reached the police station with DC Naval Bajaj and Commissioner A.N. Roy.Police sources said More always got away with rude behaviour and drinking on duty because his brother-in-law, a police inspector in the Crime Branch, shielded him.
