Fact-finding team accuses police for Dalit youth’s death

Madurai: Demands an enquiry by the DGP

Evidence, a Madurai-based NGO, has alleged that some police officers in Vaniyambadi police station of Vellore district are responsible for the recent death of Anbu, a Dalit youth.

According to A. Kathir, Executive Director, Evidence, Anbu, who had some issues with his wife Nalini for the last two months, preferred a complaint with the police. However, the police, instead of conducting an inquiry and registering a case, dodged the complainant.

Irked by the attitude of the police, Anbu, a conservancy worker in a private lodge, allegedly set himself on fire in front of the police station on September 8.

He was admitted to a government hospital in a serious condition, where a judicial officer recorded his statement.

Soon, the victim was shifted to Vellore Government Hospital, where he breathed his last on September 11.

In a complete twist, the police reportedly booked Nalini as accused, Mr. Kathir told newsmen here on Thursday, while releasing the report of a fact-finding team that visited Vaniyambadi.

“If the police had enquired the petition and brought some relief, he would not have committed suicide” was the statement he had made before the judicial officer, Mr. Kathir said, adding that the case had to be altered in such a way that the police were responsible for the death and not Nalini.

In not allowing Nalini to perform the last rites, the ploy of the police had been exposed, the fact-finding team members said.

After being illegally detained in the police station for two days, she was sent to judicial custody.

The Supreme Court, in several Public Interest Litigation petitions, had observed that the police should not show any delay in enquiring a petition by an investigating officer as it might deprive the petitioners of justice.

The supervising officers in Vellore district and the Superintendent of Police should also be held responsible for the death of Anbu and his wife Nalini should be released, Mr. Kathir said, and demanded an enquiry to be ordered by the DGP.

Mr. Kathir appealed to the State government to sanction Rs. 25 lakh for the widow as compensation.

If the police had enquired the petition and brought some relief, the youth would not have committed suicide

Source: The Hindu