Head Constable Chandrakant Pawar (45) was not drunk when he allegedly raped a 15-year-old ragpicker near the Mumbai airport on Monday night, Police Commissioner A N Roy confirmed today.‘‘The results of the blood tests have come, he was not drunk at the time,’’ said Roy, who was enraged that Pawar’s act had further tarnished the force’s image.‘‘One joker goes and behaves like this and the image of the police force gets affected,’’ he said, adding that Pawar was under watch because he was addicted to alcohol. ‘‘Despite being a Head Constable,’’ said Roy, ‘‘Pawar was always under the supervision of an assistant police inspector.’’A day after the news of two policemen allegedly raping two girls became public—this year, Mumbai has witnessed eight crimes against women by men in uniform—a disgraced police force scrambled to begin damage control.‘‘The incident is something that has shocked and disappointed me,’’ said Roy, who has been holding darbars with constables and officers for confidence-building and hearing their grievances.‘‘We have been holding these sessions so their viewpoint can be heard, their difficulties can be understood and professional problems can be attended to.’’Pointing out that he had suspended 173 policemen for their involvement in various crimes, Roy said: ‘‘Conduct is something we are firm about. We will not tolerate this kind of misconduct.’’The police chief rattled off the measures that were being taken to help policemen handle their problems—‘‘we run six yoga and Art of Living centres, conduct de-addiction programmes, ensure weekly offs’’—and admitted that the police force still needed to address issue like long hours and corruption.‘‘We are doing our best,’’ said a visibly upset Roy, ‘‘we expect our men to respond.’’
