The body of a 55-year-old man was found floating in a pond at Parnasree in southwest Kolkata’s Behala late on Friday.
Police have identified the deceased as Anupam Roy Chowdhury. Residents of the area said Roy Chowdhury was an electrical engineer. A few days ago, he had tried to commit suicide by slashing his left wrist multiple times.
The police said they received a call from residents of Parui Pucca Road in Parnasree around 10.30pm on Saturday that a body was found floating in a pond.
A team from the disaster management group of the Kolkata police reached the spot. Roy Chowdhury was then taken to Vidyasagar State General Hospital in Behala, where he was declared dead.
“It is still not clear whether someone had pushed the man into the pond or he had jumped into the water. The deceased was wearing a shirt and a trouser and had slippers on,” said an officer of Parnasree police station. “We are awaiting the post-mortem report.”
Preliminary investigations revealed that Roy Chowdhury had lost his wife in 2013 and used to stay alone in an apartment in Parnasree.
He had a small group of friends who had admitted him to a hospital a few days back following complaints of restlessness and chest pain.
Roy Chowdhury ran a consultancy firm and a number of companies owed him a lot of money, the police said after going through some documents that were kept inside a cupboard in his apartment.
“It appears Roy Chowdhury was struggling to recover the amount since the Covid pandemic had broken out and apparently did not know what to do without the money that he was supposed to get from a few firms,” the police officer said.
A flight of concrete stairs leads to the pond where Roy Chowdhury was found floating. The steps are not too high. Residents have told the police that no one would die if he or she fell after tripping on the stairs.
“About 10 days back, he had tried slitting his left wrist. There were multiple blade injuries on his hand. When we asked him about the injuries, he did not answer,” said a resident of Parnasree.
Cops have started checking Roy Chowdhury’s call details and medical records. They are also scanning footage of CCTV cameras installed on the road leading to the pond.