Kottarakkara: A middle-aged man, who was taken into custody after his wife filed harassment charges against him, gave police the slip and committed suicide inside his house here on Thursday evening.

Sreehari, 45, of "Aditya" house at Madathiyara in Panaveli, is the deceased. Local people alleged that he ended his life due to fear of police torture. The police intelligence wing began a probe into the death.

It was around 3 pm on Thursday that the police party cordoned off his house and took him into custody. After entering the police jeep, he pleaded the officers to let him inside the house for a few minutes to give his pets water.

Once the officers heeded his request, Sreehari ran into his house and shut the doors, never to come back. The ensuing search by the police found him hanging in the house. Though he was rushed to a nearby hospital, he was declared brought dead.

The police had earlier filed a case against Sreehari, an ex-NRI, who was running a stationery shop near Panaveli Junction, on the complaint made by wife Asala, a temporary staffer at the Kollam District Collectorate, that she was subject to domestic violence by him. The police had been trying to catch hold of Sreehari for the past two days.

There are locals who saw a police jeep following Sreehari on his scooter yesterday the other day.

The wife, in her complaint, said that he used to torture her regularly. Soon after filing the complaint, Asala left for her ancestral home along with their children Aditya and Karthik.

She had again approached Kottarakkara police requesting police protection in order to collect a few clothes and other belongings from Sreehari’s house.

According to Kottarakkara police, they did not take Sreehari into custody. They claim to have reached his house with Asala.

His body was sent for postmortem.