Sea-sickness: Is there a wife-swapping ring in the Indian Navy?

Ghosts of a 2013 allegation, in which the wife of an Indian Navy officer accused her husband's superior, posted at INS Kochi base, of approaching the former with an offer of "wife-swapping", have returned to haunt the nation.

Supreme Court has now ordered the Kerala Police DIG to form a special investigative team to probe the matter, wherein the woman had accused the senior officer of even threatening her husband with consequences when he had refused to oblige him initially.

Former defence minister AK Antony had taken serious cognition of the case and had even asked for a speedy probe, but the apex court had to stall the investigation after reports surfaced that Kerala Police had been "harassing" the victim in the garb of intimidating and frequent interrogation calls and sessions.

"After inquiry, if anyone is found guilty, we take strong action and exemplary punishment is given. This is our track record and this will continue. In the Kochi case also, three separate investigations are going on," Antony had said in April, 2013.

Now, after over a two-year gap, the top court's bench comprising chief justice TS Thakur and justice R Bhanumathi has asked SIT to conduct a fast-track probe and submit the report.

It seems the martial and the marital in India have a complicated relationship, with anyone charged with the offence quaintly worded as "stealing the affections of one's brother officer's wife" subject to suspension from duties. The Biblical phraseology notwithstanding, Indian Navy has dismissed the allegations of wife-swapping as baseless.

Though, that's obviously on expected lines.

Not completely satisfied with institutional denial alone, there was also an attempt to fabricate a case against the victim - the estranged wife of the Indian Navy officer who had made the allegations - according to her counsel Kamini Jaiswal.

In September 2013, Delhi Police in Vasant Vihar police station arrested her for allegedly trying to obtain a credit card in her husband's name. The woman was studying in Jawaharlal Nehru University and was a resident of its postgraduate hostel.

We can only hope that the SIT probe remains unhinged from any malfeasant influence from the top. It seems sex and the armed forces have a connection that is, more often than not, brushed under the thick carpet of honour and valour.

But can transgression set sail on these choppy waters?

Perhaps.