He does, on 8 June 1999, detailing the entire incident which took place with Siddharth on 25 May 1999.

The letter is hand delivered. The receiving clerk at the police commissioner’s office says that such a letter must be made to ‘the proper authority’.

‘So you are telling me that the police commissioner, as the highest police officer of any city, is not the proper authority for all criminal matters?’

The sarcasm is lost, as is the letter in the haze of time.

In September 1999 the Supreme Court of India judges in another case that all complaints to any police station or police official have to be addressed by those officials. In other words, all of you in the police are meant to work for the good of the citizens of India, if any one citizen approaches you with a problem, you are henceforth deemed as the proper authority to deal with it.

On 25 October 1999, Raju Zunzarrao Moray gets a visitor from the police station near his residence.

The police officer tells him, ‘Your complaint to the police commissioner has come to us. We were well aware of the incident but no one came forward to register it as a case. This is the first written complaint on the matter, so you are our First Informant. Therefore, we will have to start our investigations with you first.’

All right, is Raju Moray’s reaction, but then what.

‘After investigating you, we will investigate everyone else.’

‘Okay,’ says Raju Moray, ‘but just remember that I was not an eyewitness to even the boy who came home hurt. You need to speak with the boy’s family.’

‘We will.’

A doubt flicks in Raju Moray’s mind. ‘By now the boy has gone back to Pune. Suppose his family here says nothing of the sort happened.’

‘Then it will be assumed that you have made a false complaint.’

‘What absolute nonsense!’

‘Not nonsense; it is a serious matter to make a false complaint.’

‘But it is not a false complaint.’

‘If you cannot prove it, it is; also, then you have no business to unnecessarily clutter up our files and cause us unnecessary hardship.’

Raju Moray re-starts the conversation, ‘Listen, let us assume—correctly, since I know what they have decided—that the boy’s grandfather says that there was no incident. Then what?’

‘Then we will call you to the police station to question you on why you filed a false complaint.’

‘But it is not . . . oh all right, then what happens?’

‘Then we will call you, and we will call you again for questioning, as and when the need arises.’

‘I have to go to court you know, I have to be available for my clients and my practise. You should at least tell me when you would call me, I cannot come in the mornings, I can after court during the evenings. And, obviously, I see no reason to come every day to simply sit in the police station.’