Police in Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province, on Sunday performed an autopsy without permission from the family of a local official who died earlier under suspicious circumstances.

Yu Zusheng, father of the deceased official, told the Global Times on Monday that the police ignored requests from the family to have a third party present, and performed the postmortem examination on their own at around 9:30 am on Sunday.

According to an earlier report from the People's Procuratorate of Wenzhou, Yu Qiyi, the deceased official, "suffered an accident" on April 8 and died in hospital at 3:15 am on April 9. Yu's family slammed the report, saying the man was brutally beaten to death while being held in custody on suspicion of corruption.

Yu Zusheng demanded the police investigation team explain the autopsy results, but authorities have so far been unresponsive. 

"I don't understand why the police are being so secretive and want to keep us out of this. It has been seven days since the death of my son. There is more than enough time to find out when the death occurred and who are the potential suspects," said Yu Zusheng.

Pu Zhiqiang, lawyer of the Yu family, told the Global Times that his client will challenge the legitimacy of the autopsy and whatever evidence came out of it in court because it was not conducted independently.

The police investigation team in Wenzhou could not be reached for comment as of press time on Monday.

Yu Qiyi, 42, was the chief engineer of the Wenzhou Industry Investment Group. He was suspected of violating the law during the approval process for a local land project. Police had been holding him since March 1, under a legal procedure during which Party and government officials are asked to confess to serious violations of Party discipline and State laws.