A 40-year-old man died in custody on Monday shortly after being taken to a police outpost in the town of Sambhal in Uttar Pradesh on Monday, sparking protests from his family and local residents, reported The Indian Express.

The man’s family claimed that he was tortured to death. Locals held a protest in front of the outpost, in response to which police personnel fled fearing a mob attack.

The police claimed that the man, Irfan died of a heart attack, and denied that he was tortured in custody.

Personnel from the Rapid Action Force and the Nakhasa and Kotwali police stations were later deployed to restore order in the area.

The police had taken Irfan into custody after a relative filed a complaint accusing him of failing to repay a loan, The Hindu reported.

Irfan’s wife Reshma said that four police officers from the Raisatti outpost took her ailing husband away for interrogation, and then beat him up

“We pleaded with the police team that he was unwell and should at least be given time to take his medicine, but they did not listen,” she told the media. “They bundled him into a jeep. Had he taken his medicine, he might have survived. He was killed by the police.”

The Sambhal Police, while denying the allegations of custodial torture, claimed that a heart attack was the likely cause of Irfan’s death. Superintendent of Police Krishna Kumar Bishnoi said that when the man was taken to the police outpost, his son was also with him.

“He told the cops that his father was not feeling well and needed to take his medicine,” the official said, according to The Indian Express. “He consumed a tablet and suddenly fell to the ground. The family members took him to the hospital, but he died on the way.”

Bishnoi claimed that closed-circuit television camera footage showed that Irfan and his son were only at the police outpost for 10 to 20 minutes.

However, Nagina MP Chandra Shekhar Azad said that the death was suspicious, and called for a fair investigation.

“The allegations of police torture levelled by the family members have not only put the administration in the dock but have also dealt a severe blow to the working style of the Yogi government,” he said.