Death after blast quiz

Mumbai, July 17: The brother of a prime accused in a serial bombing case died in a hospital hours after Mumbai police had picked him up for interrogation on Wednesday's explosions.

The relatives of Faiz Usmani, a 42-year-old grocer, alleged he was tortured but the police denied the charge and ordered a CID inquiry.

The provisional post-mortem report said the body had no external injuries. "The report has revealed that there are no external injuries. The death was caused by brain haemorrhage and heart infarction. The viscera have been preserved," said Dr T.P. Lahane, the dean of JJ Hospital, where the post-mortem was carried out.

Others said it would have to be a coincidence for brain haemorrhage and myocardial infarction (or heart attack) to happen naturally at the same time. Intense emotional or physical stress may trigger a heart attack in a heart patient. Similar conditions can cause bleeding in the brain.

The relatives said Faiz was in good health when he was picked up but the police said he was a hypertension patient.

The death has come at a time the police appeared to be running into dead ends in the triple blast probe. Veteran officers said that "in such frustrating circumstances", third-degree methods were not uncommon.

Faiz died at Sion hospital in central Mumbai around 1.30am, 10 hours after he was picked up from his residence by crime branch officials for questioning on the July 13 bombings at Dadar, Zaveri Bazaar and Opera House that killed 19 persons.
Faiz was the elder brother of Afzal Usmani, the prime accused in the 2008 serial bombings in Ahmedabad that killed 56 people. Afzal, now lodged in a Gujarat jail, allegedly belonged to an Indian Mujahideen module busted by the Mumbai crime branch, then headed by current anti-terrorism squad chief Rakesh Maria.
Faiz owned a grocery store in the densely populated minority pocket of Shivaji Nagar, Govandi, in northeastern Mumbai, and lived on the first floor of the shop with his wife and six children. A day before last week's blasts, two alleged aides of Afzal were arrested not too far from the shop.
"When I returned home from college, my mother told me that my father had been summoned to the crime branch. When I saw my father later in the evening at Sion hospital, he was vomiting badly. He was hale and hearty when he left home for the police questioning. We believe that he was tortured by police in custody," Faiz's son Aseem told reporters.
Amjad Sayyed, a neighbour and family friend, told The Telegraph: "Officials of crime branch unit 6 came to Faiz's shop around 3.30pm on Saturday and took him away for questioning. Around 5.30pm, the family received a call saying he was extremely unwell and was vomiting. The police admitted him to Sion hospital. By the time we reached the hospital, he was in a serious condition."
Denying the torture charge, the police said Faiz was a hypertension patient and had reported sick 20 minutes into questioning. "He had not taken his regular medicine for hypertension for the last two to three days. As soon as he reported sick, we rushed him to Sion hospital," an officer said.

A doctor said that when Faiz was brought to the hospital, his blood pressure was higher than 220 points.