Calcutta High Court on Friday ordered the state government to arrange for a second post-mortem of Abu Siddique Halder who died under mysterious circumstances soon after getting bail in a theft case.

Sources said 34-year-old Halder, a resident of Dholahat’s Ghatmukultala in South 24-Parganas, was arrested on June 30 based on his uncle’s complaint that he had stolen gold ornaments.

Halder’s family members alleged that he was not shown as arrested and tortured in custody until July 4 and there were multiple injuries on his body when he was produced before the additional chief judicial magistrate’s court in Kakdwip that granted him bail.

A police officer denied the allegations: “The youth was arrested on July 3 and produced in the court a day later. After he was released on bail, he stayed at home for a few days before getting hospitalised for treatment. He was not tortured.”

After Haldar passed away on July 8, his family moved the high court demanding a probe.

In her order delivered on Friday, Justice Amrita Sinha said: “The post-mortem should be conducted at NRS Hospital by following NHRC guidelines... The viscera would have to be sent to Central Forensic Laboratory, Hyderabad.”

The court sought the second post-mortem report on July 22 when the case would come up for hearing again.

The lawyer appearing for the state government informed the court that the police had started a departmental probe into the incident and claimed that FIRs had been lodged against the officer-in-charge and the investigation officer of Dholahat police station.