Aryn Baker (’01) writes for TIME Asia on a series of murders in the New Delhi suburb of Noida that have added fuel to a debate over police reform in India.

It’s not just the gruesomeness of the Noida murders that has captured India’s attention, but the fact that they spotlight glaring inequalities in Indian society—and raise questions about whom public officials truly serve. Police have detained Moninder Singh Pandher, a businessman who lives in Noida, and his servant Surender Kohli, and charged them with kidnapping, rape and murder. While Kohli has confessed to the killings, Pandher’s lawyer denies the charges against his client. But it’s what the police did not do that has sparked outrage. Thirty-eight women and children had been reported missing from the slum over the past two years, with little response from the authorities. “The most important aspect of these murders is not why the victims were killed or by whom, but the failure of the police to protect the powerless,” says Swati Mehta, a consultant for the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, an NGO in New Delhi. “This case is indicative of how the police function in India, and how the system needs to be changed.”

Read the full article here.