The chicken is never declared innocent in the court of hawks: This an old African saying that also holds true in India, as is evident in the manner in which the case of the MlAs thrashing assistant sub-inspector Sachin Suryavanshi has unravelled. CCTV footage from the incident has been discarded as unclear, while witnesses have been written off as incompetent onlookers.
Clearly, when politicians are in the dock, even smoking guns can be rubbished. This is because the politicians themselves play the roles of the accused, the investigator, the advocate and the judge. It is no wonder that they come clean, as has been the case with the MlAs who have been given a clean chit, even though they displayed rank arrogance and breached the decorum of the Maharashtra Assembly.
As for the cop, he remains suspended and will have to go through an inquiry simply because he had the audacity to discharge his duties, and in the process cross an MlA.