Kaushik, 46, an NDMC inspector suspended seven months ago, left his home in Nangloi in the morning. “He was completely fine. He had breakfast and left for the ACB office,” Kaushik’s wife Sudesh said.

Kaushik and the other co-accused were taken to the forensic lab in Rohini for a voice identification test.

Additional Commissioner of Police (ACB), Dilip Kumar told Newsline, “The accused was taken to the Forensic Science Lab (FSL) in Rohini for a second voice identification test that was specifically requested by Kaushik. He collapsed outside the FSL.”

The other suspended officials too said Kaushik collapsed without being tortured. “None among us was tortured or beaten. We were climbing the stairs when Kaushik fell. We ran to him with water; he was semi-conscious. The police then took him to Saroj Hospital, where he died,” Lalit, a co-accused said.

The family, however, claimed Kaushik’s friends were distorting facts because they were hand-in-glove with the police. “How can my son collapse just like that? He was completely healthy,” Kaushik’s father Munshi Ram Gaur said.

The family also alleged that the ACB officials had earlier demanded Rs 2 lakh from them to close the case.