A doctor fell to his death early on Tuesday apparently while trying to scale down the wall of a five-storeyed apartment building after the caretaker who had the lone key to the exit failed to answer multiple phone calls.
Police said Subhankar Chakravorty, 37, was found in a pool of blood at the base of the building at Metropolitan Co-Operative Housing Society, off EM Bypass.
A preliminary police inquiry has revealed that the doctor was trying to leave for his home around 3am but as the key to the main gate of the building was with the caretaker, who apparently did not wake up even after repeated phone calls, the doctor tried to scale down the wall.
“The doctor went to the apartment block around 10pm on Monday to meet a friend. The friend had come to India in May and was staying in this rented apartment where they met,” said an officer at Pragati Maidan police station.
The friend apparently told the police that the doctor, a resident of Salt Lake, received a few phone calls from his family and decided to leave for home around 3.15am.
“The doctor tried to come out of the building through the main gate. But the gate was locked and the key was with the caretaker. The friend tried to wake up the caretaker by calling him repeatedly. But he was asleep and did not answer the calls,” said the officer.
After that, the doctor tried to scale down the building from the terrace and fell while doing so. He was taken to the NRS Medical College and Hospital, where he was declared dead.
The body was sent for post-mortem.
Several buildings with multiple apartments do not have guards working in two shifts. Instead, the residents hire a caretaker who doubles as a watchman. Such caretakers are also entrusted with the key to the main entrance. The key becomes inaccessible to the residents if the caretaker is not available at any point in time, especially at night.
A police officer at Lalbazar said they have verified the version of the doctor’s friend and found that multiple calls were indeed made to the phone of the caretaker.
“We have also contacted the family of the deceased. They said they were worried because the doctor was not returning home. They were looking for him at several places, including the hospitals he was attached with. It was only during the early hours of Tuesday that the family could establish contact with the doctor, who assured them that he was returning home,” said an officer who spoke to the family.
The officer said the family is reluctant to lodge a formal complaint and wants to claim the body as soon as the formalities are over.
An unnatural death case has been started at Pragati Maidan police station. Although the circumstantial evidence does not indicate any foul play, the police said they were waiting for the post-mortem report to ascertain the cause of death.
Joint commissioner (crime), Calcutta police, Sankha Shubhra Chakrabarty said: “As stated by the victim’s friend, after receiving some phone calls from his house, the doctor tried returning home. As the main gate was locked by the caretaker, he tried to come down by scaling down the wall from the rooftop of the building, but perhaps he fell from the rooftop….”