A 26-year-old man who was staying in a guesthouse in Salt Lake with a woman friend for two months was found dead early on Thursday.
Bidhannagar police said that when they reached the spot, they found Rony Dutta, 26, lying on the bed with a dupatta tied around his neck. His friend was found with multiple injuries and a fractured arm.
The woman, originally from Konnagar in Hooghly district, has been hospitalised.
Dutta, originally from Jhalda in Purulia district, was taken to Bidhannagar Sub-divisional Hospital, where he was declared dead. The body will undergo post-mortem on Friday.
The guesthouse is in FE Block, under Bidhannagar South police station.
“A preliminary inquiry has revealed that a fight broke out between the man and the woman shortly after a youth who had come to visit them left close to midnight. The caretaker of the guesthouse has told the police that he had alerted the woman’s cousin over the phone about the violence in the room, after which the cousin had sent his driver,” said a senior officer of the Bidhannagar police commissionerate.
The driver reached the guesthouse around 1am. The woman answered the door, the officer said.
The driver entered the two-room apartment and found Dutta hanging from the ceiling by a dupatta.
“The driver rushed into the kitchen and brought a knife to cut the dupatta. He brought the man down. The police were alerted at this point. Once cops reached the guesthouse, the man was taken to the hospital,” the officer said.
The police said the woman, in her early 20s, told them that her friend had committed suicide. “The cause of the death will be known after the post-mortem report comes,” the officer said.
An officer who inspected the guesthouse said the two rooms had empty bottles and food strewn all over.
“The daily rent for the guesthouse was Rs 4,500. The woman’s cousin was paying the rent,” the officer said. “An unnatural death case has been started. No complaint has yet been lodged by the man’s family.”