Patna, Jan. 17: The Opposition leaders today joined hands to corner the state government on the alleged custodial death of 25-year-old Manoj Kumar Yadav, while home secretary Amir Subhani and additional director-general of police (headquarters) Ravinder Kumar deferred their visit to the town by a day.

Activists of the RJD, the Congress, the LJP, the CPI and the CPM took out a torchlight procession on the main thoroughfares of Nawada this evening to protest against alleged police atrocities, which led to the death of Manoj, a resident of Laxmipur, on January 15.

Their agitation got a boost with the arrival of some senior RJD leaders, including Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Abdul Bari Siddiqui and Rajya Sabha MP Ram Kripal Yadav, in Nawada today. The leaders met Manoj’s family and demanded a fair inquiry into the incident.

Siddiqui decried the state government for the rising incidents of police atrocities. “Nawada is not an isolated incident. The brutality of the police personnel at Forbesganj in Araria last year had taken the whole nation by storm. The government ordered a probe by the CBI into the Forbesganj police firing under pressure from the Opposition,” he said.

The agitators today demanded action against the police officers, including sub-divisional police officer Sanjay Kumar Singh and station house officer of Nawada police station Dinesh Choudhary, besides adequate compensation to the deceased’s family.

While the Opposition leaders protested against the alleged police high-handedness, officials in the home department said Subhani and Kumar’s visit to Nawada was postponed.

Chief minister Nitish Kumar had directed the two senior officers to visit Nawada to inquire into Manoj’s death.

A senior home department officer said: “Their visit (Subhani and Kumar’s) was postponed today because the home secretary had gone to New Delhi. He returned to the state capital in the afternoon. As a result, they could not leave for Nawada today.” The officer added that the duo would go to Nawada on Wednesday.

“The chief minister has directed them to submit a joint report. The further course of action will be taken on the basis of their report,” the officer said.

Sources said no external injury was found on Manoj’s body during the post-mortem, the report of which the police received yesterday. The viscera of the victim have been preserved and the sample sent to the state forensic science laboratory for test.

“The cause of death will be ascertained after receiving the forensic report,” the investigating officer said.

Nawada superintendent of police S.L. Das said the situation in Nawada was normal.

“Additional police force has been deployed and patrolling has been intensified in the sensitive areas of the town,” he said.