HARIPUR: A man who was suspected of being a heroin addict and peddler was discovered dead in Khanpur police station, police and family source said here on Sunday.

According to the postmortem report, there were no signs of torture on the man’s body, and police said he had ‘died by suicide’. According to Khanpur police sources, a police party arrested Sajid Shah, 46, of Muhallah Peeranwala from outside his house on Saturday night on suspicion of being a drug user and pusher. They took him to the police station, where he was placed in a lock-up.

Later that night, however, the police officials discovered Sajid Shah’s body dangling from the iron bars of washroom’s ventilator in the lock-up.

According to police sources, the family was notified of the occurrence and at first they suspected that Sajid Shah was tortured to death. When the doctors on duty at Khanpur hospital were contacted, they agreed that the dead had tried suicide, but they also believed that a severe heart attack was likely the primary cause of his death at that time. The medics had taken body samples for forensic examination.

In order to fully investigate the circumstances surrounding the death of accused in the police lock-up, District Police Officer (DPO) Farhan Khan directed a departmental investigation into the incident.The DPO stated that following the investigation, officers and police staff who were found to have been negligent would be held accountable in accordance with police regulations.

It should be noted that an official found guilty of custodial death is subject to punishment as specified in section 302 of the PPC under section 9 of the Torture and Custodial Death Prevention and Punishment Act 2022.

Published in Dawn, November 11th, 2024