Hari Singh’s family members, though, are sensing foul play.

Singh, a daily wage labourer who worked at the Bayana mandi, was found dead around 7.30 pm Friday.

The police are yet to register an FIR in the case. Bayana Station House Officer (SHO) Aas Mohammad said on Saturday that Hari Singh died after he slipped accidentally from the stairs of a house that is a few blocks away from his home. “He had sustained injuries in the forehead,” SHO Mohammad said.

Singh lived in Kolipada, ward number 4 of Bayana.

Newsline had on Tuesday (January 6) spoken with Hari Singh about the allotment, and the subsequent irregularities alleged in the allotment of flats under SC/ST quota. In a report published on January 7, Singh had claimed to have signed the application form on instructions from the local councillor.

“I never applied for a form, and I never paid any application money (Rs 5,678),” he had said. “I was told to sign the papers by the local councillor.”

Singh’s wife Kishen Devi today said that he left home on Friday with a bottle of local liquor around 5 pm and headed for a vacant house nearby, “where he usually consumes alcohol regularly”.

On Friday, Bayana police had said that the death was caused by an accident after Singh consumed alcohol. But doctors at the government hospital in Bayana said the autopsy did not find traces of alcohol in Singh’s body. Dr Bharat Meena, part of the team that conducted the postmortem, said, “As per initial tests, he was not under the influence of alcohol. There is an L-shaped mark on his head.”

Police officials said they did not find any liquor bottle from the spot.

Kishan Devi said she went to the vacant house where Singh was drinking about an hour later and found him in an unconscious state. Presuming he had passed out after drinking, she said she covered him with a shawl and left. “There was no injury marks or any mark on him then; I did not even apprehend he had died,” she said.

Kishan Devi said she found the injury marks on his body when she returned to the place around 7.30 to take him home.

Instead, she had to take him to the hospital. He was declared dead on arrival.