Manikandan, 28, an autorickshaw driver belonging to Palanganatham here, reportedly died while being taken for interrogation to the Karimedu police station here on Saturday.
Police said he was picked up after he had a quarrel with a group of men in the Karimedu police station limits on Friday night. It is said that he was detained in the station for an inquiry.
On Saturday morning, he was found unconscious in the lock-up of the station. Following this, he was rushed to the Government Rajaji Hospital, where the doctors declared him brought dead.
Suspicious that it could be a case of custodial death, his parents and other relatives protested near the mortuary and blocked the road outside the hospital, demanding that a case of custodial death be registered and action taken against the police personnel responsible for the driver’s death.
They also demanded compensation from the government. The post-mortem was delayed as his relatives continued to block the road at the arterial Goripalayam intersection.
A senior police officer said Manikandan was a history sheeter and there were a couple of assault and attempt-to-murder cases against him in four police stations in the Madurai city.
No case has been registered after the death of Manikandan, he informed.
