Kolkata, Nov 2 (IANS) The body of a canteen worker was recovered from a toilet inside the West Bengal Legislative Assembly on Monday morning, prompting an investigation and questions over security arrangements at the high-security premises.
The deceased has been identified as Umesh Chandra Das, a temporary employee who had been working at the Assembly for the past 15 years, police said.
Additional Commissioner of Kolkata Police (Detective Department) Kunal Agarwal said the circumstances surrounding Das’s death were being investigated.
“The name of the deceased is Umesh Chandra Das. He has been a temporary worker of the Assembly for the last 15 years. How this incident happened is being investigated. Detectives from the Homicide Department have already arrived. We have started an investigation,” he said.
According to the police and Assembly sources, Das was found unconscious inside a toilet by fellow workers on Monday morning. They alerted the Assembly authorities and security personnel, following which Hare Street police station was informed.
A team from Hare Street police station reached the Assembly soon afterwards. With the assistance of police personnel and Assembly security guards, Das was taken out of the toilet and rushed to a hospital. Doctors there examined him and declared him dead.
The exact circumstances of his death remain unclear. Investigators are examining whether he died of a medical condition or whether other factors were involved. The police have sent the body for post-mortem examination, and the cause of death is expected to be established after the report is received.
The incident has caused concern within the Assembly, a sensitive government building with a tightly controlled security perimeter. The recovery of a worker’s body from inside the premises has also brought the security arrangements under scrutiny.
Hare Street police have begun a detailed investigation. Investigators are examining CCTV footage from the Assembly premises and questioning Das’s colleagues to reconstruct the events leading up to his death.
The police are also checking the sequence of events before he was discovered. The police have not yet disclosed any findings, and further details are awaited pending the post-mortem examination.
–IANS
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