Metro services between New Garia and Dakshineswar were disrupted for over an hour during the morning rush on Wednesday after a critically injured man was found lying beside the tracks between Tollygunge and Rabindra Sarobar stations.
The man had head and leg injuries and was declared "brought dead" at MR Bangur Hospital, police said. A Metro spokesperson said the man had been dead by the time he was lifted from the tracks and taken to Tollygunge station.
Till late on Wednesday, he could not be identified. The cops said he was around 40.
Till Wednesday night, there was no clarity on what led to the death. Metro officials pointed to the police. The cops said they were awaiting the post-mortem report.
A motorman spotted the man lying beside the tracks for New Garia-bound trains around 9.45am. The services were disrupted till around 11am, said an official.
The disruption tormented office-goers. There was a crowd outside many Metro stations. Many of them were forced to hop on to overcrowded buses.
The city's north-south transport lifeline is not immune to disruptions because of suicides and suicide bids. But a passenger who jumps in front of a train lands on the tracks at the station. In this case, the man was found about a kilometre from Tollygunge (Mahanayak Uttam Kumar) station, said an official.
A significant portion of the tracks between Rabindra Sarobar and Tollygunge are neither underground nor overhead. They are along the surface of the road outside.
Barring stations, the Metro tracks — inside underground tunnels or on overhead viaducts — are virtually inaccessible for outsiders. But not so are the tracks in the open area between Tollygunge and Rabindra Sarobar stations. A wall that is not impossible to scale marks the boundary.
RPF sources said the legs of the man were all but severed, suggesting he was hit by a train.
"The motorman of a Kavi Subhash-bound train informed central control at 9.47am that a man was lying beside the Down line between Rabindra Sarobar and Mahanayak Uttam Kumar stations. An emergency power block was taken at 10.15am.... The body was handed to Regent Park police station," said Kausik Mitra, chief public relations officer of Metro Railway.
The carrier ran truncated Metro services between Dakshineswar and Maidan stations. Normal service resumed at 10.59am, Mitra said.
"Officers of Regent Park police station are investigating the incident.... Cause of the death can be ascertained after the post-mortem and police investigation," he said.