Rejecting allegations of murder, police in Odisha's Rourkela district said that assistant sub-inspector Alice Narma Lugun died of excited delirium.

Superintendent of Police Mitrabhanty Mahapatra said experts from AIIMS-Bhubaneswar were roped in after the initial report of the post-mortem examination was received.

"A professor of forensic medicine examined the report. In his opinion, there is a symptom called excited delirium. It is asphyxia due to excited delirium. And this occurs when a person is under heavy anxiety or gets highly excited," he said.

"ASI Lugun was suffering from that. At that time, the flow of adrenaline goes up in the body. It causes difficulty in breathing, which led to her death," he added.

She collapsed while trying to control a mob that attacked a bus and his assistant, on September 21. She was immediately taken to the Rourkela Government Hospital where she was declared dead by doctors.

Police arrested two persons, including a woman, in connection with the death. Alleging that she was killed, her family refused to take her body for funeral until a murder case was filed. They relented only after a case under IPC 302 was lodged.

Mahapatra said the investigation would now proceed based on this report.

"Soon we will file the final report. We had filed a murder case on the basis of the allegation of the family. We gathered evidence, and based on the post-mortem report, we found that this was not a murder," he said.

"A public servant was opposed during her duty and those arrested would now be booked under IPC 353," he said.

Those absconding will soon be apprehended, he added.

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