It wasn’t long before the criminals noticed someone else was playing chess in Chennai’s alleys. Street-level thugs found their corners empty and their phones seized. Corrupt officers discovered anonymous reports bearing damning photos of bribes and contracts. A smear of chalk on a wall, a folded note left on a constable’s table — small things, but they added up. The Night Sentinel did not kill; he exposed, disrupted, delivered evidence to newspapers and to honest officers who still mattered.