Bhubaneswar, July 4: The custodial death of a Balianta resident caught on charge of stealing car batteries has left the police administration here in a spot of bother.

Sanjay Das, 32, died at a private hospital here this morning within hours of being detained by Mancheswar police. Some Mancheswar residents, who allegedly caught him stealing, had also beaten him up before handing him over to the police.

Deputy commissioner of police (DCP) Nitinjeet Singh said that the police control room got a call from Kuakhai pump house in Mancheswar area around 3am informing them that local residents had caught a person there while stealing car batteries.

“Our PCR van, which rushed to the spot, informed the control room that the thief had been beaten up severely by the local residents. He was directly taken to Capital Hospital around 4am,” said Singh.

The DCP said that the Capital Hospital authorities released him in 15 minutes after some preliminary treatment. But, he was again rushed to a private hospital near Acharya Vihar Square as his condition deteriorated while in custody. He died within a few minutes of being brought at the hospital.

Deputy medical superintendent of the hospital N.K. Pattnaik said Das was brought to the hospital in a critical condition at 10.12am. “He had been beaten up and was gasping for breath. He was referred to the intensive care unit, where he died at 10.19am,” said Pattnaik.

The family members of Das, who made a living by selling fish, reached the hospital in the afternoon. They said that he had come to the city to sell fish, refusing to believe that he could anyhow be associated with any kind of theft.

In another development, the chief medical officer of Capital Hospital, Sudarshan Sahu, said that Das’s condition was good when he was released from the hospital early in the morning, giving scopes of suspicion that Das might have been tortured upon during his stay in the custody.