Friday, 1st May, 3:30 PM - a 65-year-old man, Bhimrao Kamble, lures a 3-year-old girl playing on the streets of Nasrapur, Pune. He takes her to a nearby shed and brutally rapes her. It does not end there. He murders her and buries her nearby.

The same day, at 5:30 PM, the child’s family files a missing complaint. During the investigation, CCTV footage shows Kamble taking the child away.

Today, 3rd May - three days after the incident- the accused is in police custody. Then why is the Pune–Bangalore highway echoing with demands for justice? The accused is already behind bars.

To clarify, this is the third time he has been taken into custody. It appears almost routine. In the past, he had been lodged in Pune’s Yerwada Jail for similar offences. He had previously raped his brother’s daughter.

Is he a celebrity? No. Is he a politician or a businessman? No. Then who is protecting him? No one? Or is this merely another cycle? Arrest, release, and repeat - until age overtakes accountability?

Meanwhile, the police are seen managing crowds on the Pune-Bangalore highway, even restraining the child’s father as he refuses to leave until he is assured that the accused will not walk free again.

What is deeply concerning is that this case is just one among 86 reported rape cases in India on that day. Many are still being contested in courts, while several accused, arrested in previous cases, have already been released, some going on to reoffend.

And us?

We bought tickets for Dhurandhar and made it a box-office success. We watched a brother avenge his sister by killing her rapists. We whistled, we clapped, and we shared it on social media. And even as this article is being written, audiences are lining up for another major release, Raja Shivaji. The film draws from the life of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, who is said to have practiced ‘kadelot,’ where those who committed crimes against women were pushed from the fort’s peak.

The contrast is stark. We make films, we watch them, we recommend them, and we make money out of them. Great for us. And when a girl is raped in a public bus or a child is raped and killed in a shed, we instamart candles and shed some tears.

So, I, the daughter of India- where men protect women from other men and women walk candle marches for other women, feel like smashing the head of the 65-year-old man who thought he would escape anyway after raping three women in a row.

I, the unfortunate daughter of India, who scrolls through “not all men” and “shut up, you pseudo-feminist” comments every day, feel utterly numb before going to bed each night.

I, the unfortunate daughter of India, no longer look at 1st May as Maharashtra Day.

But I am hopeful. And the reason I remain disturbed yet hopeful is another Bhimrao, who wrote the Constitution and enshrined justice within it.

Because justice cannot remain a promise on paper.