New Delhi, Oct. 5 -- For nearly five months, the family of Indian sailor Mohammed Tanweeruz Zaman lived in distress, going from office to office and contacting every authority they could think of as they desperately sought his release after he was taken captive aboard the MT Honour 25.

But when they were told that Zaman had been killed during a rescue operation, their ordeal took a darker turn. The family says the injuries they saw on his body raised serious doubts about the official account of his death and led them to believe he may have been tortured while in captivity.

"We felt that he had been held captive and tortured. To us, it did not look like the injuries were the result of crossfire or a rescue operation," Zaman's nephew Raja...