"We are hearing reports that Tabrez died of a sudden cardiac arrest. He however had a big wound on his head, his skull had been cracked due to the beating. How can they then say that the cause of death is just cardiac arrest?" Altaf asks.

The Quint spoke to the investigating officer on the case, R Narayan, who said that the cause of death was sudden cardiac arrest. "We have sought double opinion [opinion from two doctors] who have confirmed this," he said.

When we reached out to Human Rights Law Network lawyer Aman Khan, he said this does not sound right. "The cause of death is often shock or cardiac arrest. However, in this case, the medical opinion of the doctors has to be sought. Simply saying cardiac arrest is entirely non-conclusive and provides no basis for the police to remove Section 302 of murder in the charge sheet."

The IO, Narayan, however defended the police's call to remove the charge. "A lot of deliberation has happened. Not ever in my career have I ever seen cardiac arrest to be the cause of death in such a case. We have to go by the post-mortem report," he told The Quint.