The custodial death of a Dalit youth in Chennai again sparks outrage and highlights the urgent need to humanise the police force.

On the night of April 18, a team of Chennai policemen, carrying out a routine vehicle check, stopped an auto-rickshaw and found one of its occupants, Vadivel Vignesh, (25), a pavement dweller who makes a living giving joyrides on horses at the city’s famous Marina beach, in possession of some “dry ganja (marijuana) leaves barely adequate for two cigarette fillings, a quarter bottle of Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL), and a knife.” With him was his friend G. Suresh (28), a repeat offender. Vignesh, who dropped out of school after Class VII, has no serious criminal track record except for being involved in a scuffle once, registered at the Triplicane police station.

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Henry Tiphagne, a Madurai-based rights activist, who is assisting the Joint Action Committee of Custodial Torture, a collective of various rights forums that is helping Vignesh’s family fight the case, said that custodial death is a major issue that requires a concrete solution and a radical shift in how law enforcers interact with the public, whom they are legally mandated to protect.

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