Bhubaneswar, Sept. 26: Prison authorities today ordered an inquiry into the death of Laxmidhar Nanda, 52, an undertrial in Jharpada jail, on September 25.

The inquiry by an officer of deputy inspector-general (DIG) rank was ordered after Laxmidhar’s family members staged a protest outside the morgue at Capital Hospital.

The Cuttack-Bhubaneswar police, too, has written to the sub-divisional judicial magistrate (SDJM), Bhubaneswar, to initiate a magisterial probe into the matter.

Laxmidhar, who had been arrested by the excise police at Bhubaneswar railway station on September 14 on charges of smuggling contraband, was admitted to Capital Hospital on Tuesday after his condition deteriorated.

But he was declared dead there after preliminary treatment.

However, the family members of deceased, who hailed from Chandanpur in Puri district, alleged that the jail authorities had killed him. Though Laxmidhar had been arrested by the excise police and was later sent to jail, neither the excise officials nor the jail authorities informed his family members about his arrest.

“He had been missing since September 12 and we had informed the Chandanpur police verbally that he had gone missing, but they had not told us anything about his whereabouts. We came to know about his death on Tuesday from the Chandanpur police,” said Rabi Narayan Nanda, a relative of the deceased.

Laxmidhar’s wife Pratima Nanda said that when they saw his body, they found many injury marks on it and he had been tonsured.

“We suspect the jail authorities had beaten him up and that caused his death,” said Pratima.

The jail staff said Laxmidhar had been arrested for transporting opium and was a drug addict.

“He wanted opium in the jail, which we could not provide. As he fell ill, we provided him treatment at our jail hospital. After his condition deteriorated on Tuesday morning, we sent him to Capital Hospital, but he died on the way,” said superintendent of Jharapada jail Birabara Nayak.

But the family members said he was not a drug addict and had never been arrested earlier for smuggling contraband.

After the family members staged protests, minister Maheswar Mohanty, who represents Chandanpur, visited them and assured the family members that he would appeal to the government to order a judicial inquiry into the matter.

Additional director-general of police, prisons, S.S. Hansda said an inquiry by a DIG had been ordered.

“I have got the information about the death of the undertrial. The inquiry report will make clarify under what conditions the prisoner died,” said Hansda.

Deputy commissioner of police Nitinjeet Singh wrote to the SDJM, Bhubaneswar, to start an inquiry into the death as per the guidelines of the National Human Rights Commission.

“We have ordered to carry out the inquest and autopsy of the deceased as per the guidelines,” said Singh.

A team of doctors conducted the postmortem and the procedure was video recorded this afternoon.