Forensics team starts probe at RG Kar lift death case

A day after the death of Dum Dum resident Arup Banerjee, five people, including three lift operators and two security guards, were arrested. The five today were remanded to police custody till 27 March by Sealdah court. They were taken into custody for questioning yesterday.

The homicide wing of the city police today took over the investigation from Tala police and forensic experts visited the spot and collected samples to gather clues as to why the elevator at the Trauma Care Centre went out of control and what exactly caused the mechanical failure.

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The post-mortem report of the deceased revealed that Mr Banerjee had suffered poly-trauma, which in medical parlance means he had sustained multiple injuries to various body parts and organs and had his lever, lungs, ribs crushed, leading to his death.

The five arrested were identified as Milon Kumar Das, Biswanath Das, and Manas Guha, who are the lift operators and two security guards, Asraful Rahaman and Subhodip Das. They had been booked under various sections of BNS and culpable homicide not amounting to murder charges.

The father of the deceased had alleged on Friday that his sin had been murdered by the RG Kar authorities through their sheer apathy and gross negligence as the police, security guards, officials did not pay any heed to unlock the key, which was allegedly kept elsewhere, with the PWD officials, who could not be contacted.

On Saturday, forensic officials collected samples from the elevator in question. Investigators are examining which floor Arup and his family boarded the lift from, which buttons were pressed, and where the elevator ultimately took them. Another question being raised is whether the elevator had pre-existing mechanical faults and, if so, why it was not taken out of service.