Arun Prakash 

Dalit Activist 

Tamil Nadu 

HRDA has issued an urgent appeal to the National Human Rights Commission of India on May 25, 2021, regarding the illegal detention and custodial torture of Mr. Arun Prakash by the Chennai police. Mr. Prakash is a Dalit activist, former member of the Citizen for Human Rights Movement, and a well-known HRD. 

Mr. Prakash and his friend were having juice at a stall at TP Chatram, Chennai on March 13, 2021. At that time, police personnel from TP Chatram police station came to the stall, which has been there for 8 years and asked the owner of the stall to remove it immediately. Mr. Prakash started video recording the incident with the intention to record the misbehavior of the police officials. He was then abused by the police officials who also threatened him stating that he doesn’t have a right to record the actions of the police. 

He was then illegally detained by 3 police officials and taken to the TP Chatram police station and was brutally tortured, with the police stamping his face with their boots. He was threatened to be booked under false cases. He was released only after oral intervention by the Tamil Nadu State Human Rights Commission but it did not register any case on the issue. Mr. Prakash went to the hospital the following day, he was not admitted to the hospital nor was he given his medical reports. 

The illegal detention of Mr. Prakash clearly violates multiple provisions of DK Basu guidelines. The act of the police also violates a number of national and international laws and covenants on torture along with the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defender adopted by the UN General Assembly.