A woman died in police custody in Jashore's Abhaynagar upazila yesterday morning, hours after she was picked up from her residence.

Family members alleged that police first implicated Afroza Begum, 40, in a false drug case and tortured her to death for money.

However, police claimed they detained the woman with 30 pieces of yaba and denied torturing her.

The deceased's son Sabbir Mollah, a ninth-grader, said a team of police led by Assistant Sub-Inspector Silon Ali of Abhaynagar Police Station arrived at their house on Saturday midnight.

At that time, he said his mother went out of their house to bring water from a tube well nearby.

"Take out what you have," Sabbir quoted as Silon told her mother who replied she had nothing.

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"A female police constable then searched my mother and found nothing. Then ASI Silon beat her up in front of me and she fell on the ground. He then tied up my mother's hair to the fan and tortured her," Sabbir told our local correspondent.

Sabbir's elder brother Munna Mollah said the police team, being instigated by some locals, came to their house and detained her mother falsely accusing her of possessing yaba.

"Silon and some other policemen tortured my mother and then took her away around 1:00am on Sunday," he said.

"Police demanded a bribe of Tk 2 lakh for her release. As we could not pay the money, they tortured her to death," Munna alleged.

He further said they went to the police station yesterday morning and found her mother in a bad condition.

Police took her to the upazila health complex after they made the request. However, they returned to the police station with her without doing any tests suggested by the duty doctor following check-up, he alleged.

As her condition deteriorated, she was later taken to Jashore General Hospital where doctors declared her dead around 11:30am.

Hasib Ali Hasan, a medical officer of the hospital, said the woman died before reaching the hospital.

The body was sent to hospital morgue, he said, adding that the cause of the death will be known after autopsy.

Police filed a drug case against the woman last morning.

ASI Silon, however, said the allegations made by Afroza's family is false and baseless.

Akikul Islam, officer-in-charge of the police station, said police arrested her with 30 pieces of yaba and kept her in the female lock-up in the night.

She fell ill on Sunday morning and died on the way to hospital, he said, adding police did not torture her.