I waited nervously in the corridors of the district court complex in Thrissur, Kerala, along with Krishnan and his wife, Omana. Omana dabbed her face with a thin handkerchief, crying softly – my nervousness was surely a pale proxy for their grief. It was a hot afternoon in late 2017 and we were waiting for their case to be called by the Kerala State Police Complaints Authority (KSPCA), where I was assisting the lawyers in a case regarding the custodial killing and torture of the Dalit couple's son. Over the next few months, I would accompany them to the Kerala State Human Rights Commission (KSHRC), watching them continue to hope for closure, or perhaps even justice. With this hope, they would look to five different state authorities: statutory, judicial and quasi-judicial.
In July 2017, Vinayakan, their 19-year-old son died by suicide in their home in Engandiyur, Thrissur. Vinayakan had been stopped and questioned by a police officer in plain clothes earlier that month. He was on a motorbike with his friend Sarath, when they stopped on the side of the road to speak to Vinayakan's female friend. They were still chatting when a police officer emerged to question them. Soon, Vinayakan and Sarath were asked to accompany the police officer to the Pavaratty police station for more 'questioning'.
Scared, they went along. At the station, they were accused of being involved in recent 'chain-snatching' (necklace theft) incidents in the area, an accusation they denied. Thus began the horrific ordeal that was to follow.
At the police station, they were interrogated and then tortured – they were verbally abused and beaten, and Vinayakan's hair was pulled. The police officials repeatedly asked the boys to confess to the chain-snatching and confiscated their mobile phones. Then they shamed Vinayakan for his hairstyle, his earrings and his friendship with the girl he was speaking to. The cops expressed disgust at Vinayakan's long, coloured hair, a shame that the district's police officers in 2016 also tried to impose on Oorali Martin, a musician from the popular alternative rock band Oorali known for its protest-folk music. The police verbally abused Martin, pulled his hair, ridiculed his appearance, and, in his words, "exhibited him" to passers-by as if he were a criminal. Reports suggest that the police officers picked him up as part of a general investigation into drug-related offences, as they tended to associate Martin's appearance with criminality.