BELAGAVI: A local resident, Basangouda Iragouda Patil (45), died in the custody of Belagavi police after he was arrested for allegedly supplying ganja to undertrials. Patil’s daughter accused the police of torturing him to death and demanded an investigation.
Patil, a resident of Bellad Bagewadi near Belagavi, was arrested on Friday and the Belagavi Rural police produced him before the Belagavi city court the same day. The police claimed that when he started sweating and vomiting at the station, he was rushed to the civil hospital where he died of a massive cardiac arrest.
Police Commissioner Dr MB Boralingayya said the accused was arrested as he was suspected of supplying ganja to undertrials three months ago. The case will be handed over to the CID for investigation, he added. The daughter of the deceased, Rohini Patil, said he did not have blood pressure or diabetes.
“The police framed my father in a fake case and arrested him without informing us. When I came to the civil hospital, the police said my father was alive. As I am a paramedical student, I checked my father and he had no pulse. When I demanded a stethoscope, they did not give it to me, and later the police said he was dead. He had suspicious marks on his hands as he might have been tortured,” she said.