Justice Denied: Dalit Youth Beaten in Andhra Police Custody Seeks President's Permission to Join Naxals

President Ram Nath Kovind on Wednesday appointed a special officer to look into the case of caste atrocities in Andhra Pradesh after a Dalit youth wrote a letter seeking his permission to join the Naxals as he was allegedly beaten and had his head tonsured in a police station.

The file related to the case was transferred to the state government's General Administration Department (GAD). The President's Office directed the victim Vara Prasad to meet Assistant Secretary Janardhan Babu for the assistance.

Prasad was beaten and his head tonsured at Seethanagaram police station, in East Godavari district on Sunday night. The incident occurred after he was taken to the police station following an alleged confrontation with a local YSRCP leader.

A sub-inspector and a constable were suspended and the police registered a case against Prasad for stopping the truck of the YSRCP leader.

He said that the incident took place as a truck was trying to move through the street near his residence when his family was performing the last rites of a relative. "I and three others stopped the movement of the sand truck and we asked the truck driver to wait for some time until the body was moved from the place. This led to an argument," Prasad said.

He alleged that the truck was involved with sand mafia operation under the influence of the local political leader and a sub-inspector police Shaik Feroze Shah, along with two other constables, took him and two others to the police station for "investigation". Police personnel then called a barber and got his head tonsured and his moustaches removed.

Opposition leader N Chandrababu Naidu, while reacting to the incident, had said that 'jungle raj' had returned to the state.

"Vara Prasad's head was tonsured by leaders belonging to YCP in East Godavari District's Seethanagaram Police Station. All this happened in the presence of policemen who heckled and beat the man to a pulp, destroying the self-esteem of a Dalit man. His only mistake was to question the illegal sand mining in the region," he wrote on Twitter.