The victim died due to injuries at the PGIMER (Representational)
A 37-year-old Dalit man, who was mercilessly thrashed and forced to drink urine in Punjab's Sangrur district early this month, died on Saturday morning at a hospital, police said.
The opposition parties attacked the Congress-led Punjab government over the "barbaric treatment" being meted out to Dalits in the state.
"The victim succumbed to injuries at the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education & Research (PGIMER)," Sangrur Senior Superintendent of Police (SP) Sandeep Garg said.
The doctors had amputated his legs due to infection, a police official said.
On October 21, the victim, who was a resident of Changaliwala village, got into an altercation with one Rinku and some other persons over some issue. The matter was resolved with the intervention of villagers, the police said.
The victim had told police that on November 7, Rinku had called him to his house where the two talked about the issue.
He had alleged that he was then thrashed by four persons with a stick and an iron rod after being tied to a pillar and was forced to drink urine when he asked for water.
Four people -- Rinku, Amarjit, Yadwinder and Binder -- were arrested on charges of abduction, wrongful confinement, and under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act at the Lehra police station in Sangrur, the police said.
After the victim died on Saturday, section 302 (murder) of the IPC was also added to the FIR, SP Garg said.
According to police, the accused persons had claimed that the victim had been abusing them.
The victim's family members on Saturday said the accused beat him up because they had a grudge against him.
The victim's family demanded a compensation of Rs 25 lakh and a government job for one of the family members. They refused to accept the body and allow the post-mortem till their demands were met, the police said.