DAVANAGERE: The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) will take over the investigation into the alleged death of a man in police custody in Channagiri on Friday, said Superintendent of Police Uma Prashanth here on Sunday.
She said the district police have arrested 25 persons for vandalising the police station, attacking police personnel and damaging police vehicles, based on video evidence available with the police.
The accused have been charged under Sections 353 and 307 of IPC and were produced before court, which has handed them over to judicial custody. The accused are from Nalluru, Honnebaagi and Channagiri.
They were part of a mob that attacked the police station after an arrested person, Adil, died in police custody.
The postmortem on Adil’s body was conducted in the presence of a judge on Saturday and the report is expected in three days. The report will reveal the real cause of Adil’s death, she said.
Channagiri DySP Prashanth Munnoli has obtained all information on those who attacked the police station, in which 11 police personnel suffered injuries.
Six complaints have been registered over vandalising the police station, injuring police personnel and damaging police vehicles, she said.
Channagiri, which was tense over the custodial death, returned to normal on Sunday. Additional police personnel from neighbouring Chitradurga, Davanagere and Shivamogga have been deployed in town, the SP said.
Five police teams, formed to investigate the incident, are going through CCTV footage and public videos to identify the culprits. As many as 40 attackers have been identified till now, she said.
The police on Friday arrested Adil (33) from Tippunagar of Channagiri taluk for allegedly organising a matka racket and died in police custody. The police claimed that he died of seizure.
But his relatives alleged that he was tortured to death in police custody. Soon after the news of his death spread, a large group of people vandalised the police station and attacked policemen.
The SP had on Saturday said Adil was at the police station only for six to seven minutes and he developed a health complication. He was rushed to hospital where he died. But the police do not have any video footage to substantiate their claims.