Relatives of a man, who allegedly died in the police custody on Tuesday, attacked the Madakasira police station damaging the facade of the station.
According to the police, Sheik Basheer (37), a resident of Kallumadi village of Madakasira mandal was found to have committed suicide inside the cell in the police station in the morning.
Sheik Basheer, who hanged himself using a long piece of cloth, was taken into custody by the police late on Tuesday evening. Although Basheer was immediately taken to the government hospital at Madakasira, he was declared brought dead, the police said.
Enraged by the death of Basheer, his relatives damaged flower pots outside the station and a window pane even before the police could bring the situation under control.
Superintendent of Police S. Senthil Kumar told The Hindu that Basheer was taken into custody in connection with crimes of property theft in which he was identified as an accused. “A case was registered at Madakasira police station on June 16 for loss of Rs.80,000 and other metal articles. In connection with this and other prior cases against him, we took him into custody on Tuesday evening and even recovered a part of the lost property while the rest was to be recovered,” said Mr. Senthil Kumar, who also added that the deceased’s body was sent for postmortem to Madakasira Government Hospital and the report was awaited.
On the other hand, the wife and relatives of the deceased, accused the police of killing Basheer after having taken him into custody almost four days ago.
“Everyday, for the last four days, Basheer was taken to the police station in the morning and sent back in the evening. However, he did not returned home on Monday and on Tuesday, we found him dead”, said his wife.
She also accused the police of demanding a bribe of Rs.10,000 to leave her husband alone, and before she could arrange the money, her husband was killed.