The death of a 26-year-old youth after the Haryana Police detained him in Odisha’s Malkangiri district on suspicion of ganja smuggling sparked protests in the town on Monday, with residents alleging that he was tortured in police custody. The Haryana Police maintained that he died by suicide.

Tanup Dey, a resident of MV-65 village who worked as an assistant at a local “light and sound agency”, was found hanging in a hotel bathroom on Monday, a day after a five-member Haryana Police team arrested him. The Haryana Police said he died by suicide around 7 am, when he had gone to take a bath.

The youth, Tanup Dey

According to the Haryana Police, Dey was a suspect in a case registered under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act at Baas Police Station in Haryana’s Hansi district on March 27 this year. Police said four people had been arrested in the district for allegedly possessing 63 kg of ganja, a commercial quantity under the NDPS Act.…