A murder suspect in police custody was found hanging inside a toilet at the District Police Office in Banke on Friday morning.

Babulal Raidas of Bankatti in Daduwa Rural Municipality Ward No. 3, Banke, was arrested on the charge of killing a 13-year-old boy of the same village. He was in police custody for the last 25 days.

The District Police Office in Banke had filed a murder case and also a case of misbehaving with police officers against Raidas. Relatives of the deceased have demanded an investigation into the case citing the incident as suspicious.

Deputy Superintendent of Police at the District Police Office Subash Khadka said, “Raidas was arrested on a murder charge. But a case of misdemeanor was also filed against him for misbehaving with police personnel during interrogation.”

According to him, Raidas committed suicide at 5:30am on Friday using a headscarf he had with him.

Relatives of the deceased, however, have accused the police of foul play. They claim that the deceased was tortured in police custody leading to his death. Patilal Raidas, the deceased’s brother-in-law, said, “How can one commit suicide inside the police station with police personnel present. We suspect foul play and demand fair investigation into the case.”

According to him, the police also conducted the postmortem of the deceased without informing the relatives.

“Raidas had denied police allegations. Police tortured him to make him admit to the crime but he did not. Police also tortured many locals in relation to the murder incident,” said a local leader of Betahani.