The 52-year-old homemaker who was critically injured along with her doctor husband after the couple had a free fall in the elevator at their residence-cum-nursing home in south Kolkata on Monday succumbed to her injuries early on Tuesday.
Chaitali Mitra, a mother of two, was on ventilation support. She passed away around 2.10am, said officials of Ruby General Hospital.
Police said a suo motu case had been started against the persons who were in charge of the maintenance of the elevator, which apparently malfunctioned and crashed to the ground floor from the third.
Chaitali and husband Anirban Mitra, 55, were going up in the elevator when the accident happened.
“A suo motu case under IPC Sections 287, 338 and 114 has been indexed at Kasba police station against the persons responsible for the maintenance of the machinery of the lift,” the joint commissioner of police, crime, Sankha Shubhra Chakrabarty.
Section 388 deals with the offence of causing grievous hurt to any person by doing any act so rashly or negligently as to endanger human life. Section 287 deals with the offence of negligent conduct with respect to machinery. Section 114 deals with abetment of any offence, if abettor is present when offence is committed.
The police said they would have to speak to Mitra, who is in the ICCU of Ruby hospital, for more details and documents related to the annual maintenance contract of the elevator in the four-storeyed building.
The police said a company whose office is at Mathurapur Prantik Pally in Sonarpur had been engaged by Mitra for the maintenance job.
The Telegraph contacted the lift maintenance company on Tuesday. An official said they were not awarded any “annual maintenance contract” by the owner of the nursing home, but were called for repair and maintenance “on a need basis”.
The official said the elevator was last inspected in February, after which specific recommendations were made for repairs and modifications.
“We submitted a list of recommendations and quotations in February, but we could not implement any of them as Dr Mitra had said he would get these things done when his financial condition would allow him to,” said the official.
The maintenance company, he said, had recommended the replacement of three-piston oil seals, two collapsible gates and one fan.
The official said he had a talk with Mitra on Monday, a few hours before the accident happened.
This newspaper could not verify the version of the company as Mitra is still in a critical condition.
Mitra’s family members said they were not in a position to comment on details related to the elevator.
Mitra, 55, suffered multiple fractures but has yet to be operated upon.
“The patient is stable but still critical. His parameters are yet to stabilise. Until that happens, surgery is ruled out. His entire body has swellings and has all the signs of a fall from height,” said an official at Ruby hospital.
Chaitali had fractured her spine and ankles and also suffered a large lacerated injury.
The body will undergo post-mortem, officials at Ruby said.
Chaitali lived with her family on the top floor of the four-storeyed building. The couple’s nursing home — Amrapali Geriatric Home, on Rajdanga Main Road — functions from the other three floors of the building.
One of their relatives, Rana Basu, said the couple had set up the nursing home in Dover Lane. It shifted to the Kasba address a few years ago.
“They have a 21-year-old son and a daughter in her 30s. The daughter lives in Kolkata and runs her business,” Basu said.