Chennai: Dileepan Mahendran, a 25-year-old from Tamil nadu's Nagapattinam district invited trouble when he posted pictures of a burning Indian flag on facebook to express his ire against the system- an action that would led him to face its grim consequences.
On 31 January, images of him setting the Indian national flag on fire went viral on Facebook and WhatsApp. By the time he could take them down, it was too late.
Complaints started pouring in, prompting cyber cops from Chennai to start looking for him.
Those angered by his act began sleuthing on the internet for information on him, and two persons, including a private airlines pilot, CR Naveenkumar, filed a legal complaint against him.
On January 1, City Police arrested Dileepan Mahendran on charges of burning the Indian national flag, a picture of which had gone viral on the social media.
But according to his lawyer, Elangovan, his arrest marked the beginning of alleged gruesome police brutality.
According to reports, Policemen beat him up through the night of arrest, and he was then blindfolded and taken to an undisclosed location. He was told to stand still by two men – they threatened to kill him if he moved.
With a broken hand and three fingers fractured, Dileepan was taken to Stanley Hospital where the men had told hospital officials not to provide him with adequate treatment because he was a “traitor”, said his lawyer.
He then alleged that the police had threatened him to keep quiet about the issue in court.
However, Assistant Commissioner of Police R Rangaraja at the Pulianthope police station has dismissed all allegations.
"We simply acted on a complaint and arrested him. He broke his hand when he was on the run from the police and we made sure he got proper treatment for it," R Rangaraja, Assistant Commissioner of Police told reporters.
His lawyer also said that Dileepan reportedly is very passionate about social rallies and that's why he did this.
He had a list of 30 demands that were not met and burnt the flag to turn people's attention to them.
Dileepan was an active participant in rallies and protests calling for action in the cases of Rohith Vemula and the suicides in Villupuram.
Human rights activists gheraoed the Pulianthope police department protesting the ill-treatment of Dileepan on Monday and were dispersed later.
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