SAHIWAL, March 22: As many as four policemen were arrested on Wednesday for allegedly torturing an aged storekeeper of a private company to death in custody. Reports said 10 armed bandits allegedly took away electric appliances, including air-conditioners, refrigerators and deep freezers etc, worth Rs2 million from the warehouse of the company.

City police registered the case against the company sales manager and his six accomplice, while they took in custody the aged storekeeper, Abdul Hameed, for investigation.

The storekeeper, arrested at about 2am on Wednesday, was allegedly subjected to severe torture by the police during the investigation. He was taken to the DHQ hospital in a critical condition where he died.

City police registered a case under section 302, 304 PPC against the Investigation Cell officials, ASIs Bashir Ahmed and Masood Ahmed and constables Muhammad Ashraf and Abdul Ghafoor.

A medical board conducted the postmortem of the storekeeper, and sent samples of the body for analysis by the chemical examiner.

The accused policemen claim the death was caused due to heart failure.