Hyderabad, May 21 -- A 70-year-old man died after being taken into police custody in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, triggering serious allegations of custodial torture and sparking protests outside the hospital where he was being treated.

Zaheer Shaikh, a resident of Juhapura in Ahmedabad, died while undergoing treatment at SVP Hospital. He had been arrested by the Vejalpur Police Station on May 18, in connection with a case involving the alleged possession of approximately 500 kilograms of beef. A first information report had been filed on May 5 under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) Section 325 and the Animal Preservation Act, after police recovered around 520 kilograms of suspected cattle meat from an open field in the Juhapura area, along with...