Madikeri (Karnataka),  Eight policemen were suspended for allegedly beating a 50-year-old man to death after he reportedly attacked a constable with a knife in Karnataka's Kodagu district, police said on Sunday.

"Eight policemen, including 2 head constables and 6 constables of Virajpet police station, have been suspended after the victim Roy D'Souza's mother filed a complaint that her elder son was beaten to death for refusing to surrender after attacking beat policeman Sangmesh Shivapura with a knife on June 8," Inspector General of Police, Southern Range, Praveen Madhukar Pawar told IANS on phone.

The suspended policemen are head constables M.U. Sunil and N.S. Lokesh, and constables H.J. Tanukumar, N.H. Satish, M. Sunil, A. Ramesh, K.G. Nehru, and B.T. Pradeep.

"Kodagu Superintendent of Police Kshma Misra filed an FIR under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code against the policemen on a complaint by D'Souza's mother Matilda on June 10," said Pawar.

The case was transferred on June 12 to the CID for probe, as per the National Human Rights Commission guidelines.

According to the FIR, the incident occurred on June 8 night when D'Souza attacked Shivapura with a knife and ran after him to assault him again.

As Shivapura rushed into the police station, D'Souza was asked to surrender for attacking a policeman on duty. When he refused, the policemen there reportedly thrashed him up after detaining him.

"On June 9 morning, D'Souza's mother was called to the police station to take her son who lay critically injured in the police station compound. When he was rushed to the government hospital at Madikeri, doctors declared him brought dead," said the report.

The CID is waiting for the post-mortem report from the hospital at Madikeri where the victim's inquest was conducted to ascertain the cause of death.

"The CID will also investigate if the victim was 'mentally unsound' as alleged by the policemen," added Pawar.