Raipur: Four policemen posted in Chhattisgarh's Bastar region were suspended after a man suspected to be a Maoist died in custody, officials at the police headquarters here said on Sunday.
The death took place Friday night in a forested area of Sukma, a district recently carved out from insurgency-hit Dantewada district, police said.
The district authorities said a probe would be carried out after local people alleged that 26-year-old Poriami Mara was picked up by police from his house and died in police custody due to excessive police torture.
But officials at the police headquarters here dismissed the charges and claimed Mara was a local area commander of the banned Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist) and was apprehended in a search operation from the Nilavaram forested area.
Police also said he committed suicide in the lockup and four policemen were suspended for it immediately.
Mara belonged to Kondare area, some 450 km south of state capital Raipur, a Maoist stronghold since the late 1980s.
IANS
First Published: Sunday, January 15, 2012, 13:22