The Crime Branch-Criminal Investigation Department (CB-CID), twenty-seven days after the custodial death of Vignesh in Chennai, has made the first arrests in the case. The CB-CID has arrested six policemen attached to the G-5 secretariat colony police station. The names of the six cops arrested are as follows: Kumar, head constable; Pavan Raj, head constable; Munaf, writer; Deepak, home guard; and two Armed Reserve (AR) police personnel. The police have also invoked the Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act against the accused cops.
The development came after Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin told the state legislative assembly that a case of murder was registered against three police personnel based on findings from the autopsy. Stalin said that as per the conclusions in Vignesh’s postmortem report, there are 13 injuries on his body. He also added that the investigation would continue to be conducted by the CB-CID.
On April 18, Dalit man named Vignesh died after he and his friend Suresh, were taken into custody by the police. Vignesh made his living on Chennai’s Marina Beach. Vignesh and his friend, according to the police, were arrested as they found ganja and liquor in the duo’s possession. Vignesh had injuries prior to the seizures he got the following morning and this was the cause of death, the police officials have said. The CCTV footage, however, showed Vignesh running with policemen arresting him while showing no indication of a leg fracture as claimed.
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