Did Faiz Usmani, brother of Indian Mujahideen operative Afzal, die of police torture? While his family blamed the police for his custodial death, the crime branch cited hospital reports and said Usmani died of hypertension.
The police had picked up Usmani on Saturday afternoon in connection with the Wednesday’s blasts. The police felt he might reveal something as he was in regular touch with his brother, a crime branch officer said. His brother Afzal is an accused in the 2008 Ahmedabad blasts.
The police said he was suffering from hypertension at the time of death but hospital doctors said the exact cause of death would be known only after the post-mortem. But Usmani’s family members strongly denied that he was suffering from any disease.
They alleged that the police had tortured him, which led to his death.
Dr Bashar, a neighbour of Usmani, said the police had grabbed him by the neck when they took him on Saturday. “Their torture must have cost him his life,” he said.
Usmani was questioned for about 20 minutes when he complained to giddiness, an officer said. He was taken to Shatabdi Hospital and then to Sion hospital when his condition did not improve. He died around 1am, he said.
Several doctors, however, find it hard to believe that a 35-year-old would die of hypertension. Some say it would be the rarest of rare case of natural death if he did die of the disease.
The police termed the family’s allegations false. “The doctors have said his body had no injury marks,” Nisar Tamboli, DCP (detection), said. “He had hypertension and was on medication.
Since he did not take his medicines for the past two-three days, he might have suffered a stroke.” The officer said that the state CID would look into the matter and “its investigation would bring the real picture out”.
On Sunday evening, the agency questioned the crime branch’s Chembur unit officers, who had gone to Usmani’s home in Govandi, for almost two hours.
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