The incident took place in the wee hours yesterday when Santosh Suryavanshi was taken to a priest, who claimed that he is a healer and will treat the victim with black magic, near a temple in Ulhasnagar, Thane Police PRO Sukhada Narkar said.
"The man was subjected to torture by the priest his son and a transgender. They all beat him severely with sticks, rods, belt on the pretext of getting evil spirits off him after keeping him captive for hours. He died on the spot," she said.
The three accused were arrested yesterday from Ulhasnagar here, the PRO said.