While family members and neighbours of Faiz Usmani, 40, have alleged that he was tortured in police custody, doctors said preliminary examinations have revealed no external injury marks.

The Mumbai Police have denied allegations of wrongdoing and have handed over the probe into Faiz’s death to the State Criminal Investigation Department.

Faiz is the elder brother of Afzal Mutalib Usmani alias Afsar, 35, who was arrested by the Mumbai Police Crime Branch in September 2008 for his alleged role in the Ahmedabad serial blasts and the planting of bombs recovered in Surat in July that year.

On Saturday afternoon, Faiz was picked up for questioning from his residence in the Shivaji Nagar area in the eastern suburb of Govandi, and taken to the Chembur Unit of the Crime Branch. A few hours later, he was admitted by the police to Shatabdi Hospital in Govandi, and was later shifted to Lokmanya Tilak Hospital in Sion.

“He was brought in an unconscious state and his blood pressure was extremely high. He was immediately admitted to the ICU and his CT scan showed a massive brain haemorrhage,” said Dr Randir Singh, medical officer, Lokmanya Tilak Hospital.

Stating that preliminary examinations did not suggest that Faiz was subjected to physical torture, Dr Singh said, “There were absolutely no external injury marks on Usmani’s body. His CT scan image clearly showed that he gave in to the haemorrhage in the brain and died a natural death.”

Faiz was under treatment at the Sion hospital from 5:30 pm on Saturday, and died at 1:25 am on Sunday. His body was sent to JJ Hospital for a post-mortem.

Late in the evening, Deputy Police Commissioner (Crime) Nisar Tamboli said the “provisional post-mortem of Usmani suggests that 90 grams blood clot was found in his brain. He even had a heart attack.”

Additional Commissioner of Police (Crime) Deven Bharti said “there is no question of any police torture”. He said Faiz “complained that he was feeling ill shortly after arriving at the Unit 6 office. He was a hypertension patient, and had apparently not been taking his medication for the past few days.”

But Faiz’s son, Azim, 17, has alleged foul play. “I was in college when this happened. My father was at home at 3 pm on Saturday when a few policemen came and asked him to accompany them for questioning. An hour later, some policemen came and told my mother that he was admitted to Sion Hospital. When we rushed there, he was unconscious. How can someone take ill in less than an hour?” he said.

“My mother is still in shock. Only yesterday, my father was alive and now he is no more. Who is responsible for his death? We want to find out what happened to him,” he said.

“The police have told us that he may have forgotten to take his medicines. No person falls unconscious in less than an hour. He may have been tortured in custody. We want stern action taken against those responsible for his death,” said Naseer Khan, a neighbour.

Faiz, a resident of Shivaji Nagar, ran his own general stores. He is survived by his wife Rohaida, 38, and six children — the eldest is daughter Zainab, 20, and the youngest is one-year-old son Haarish.