Kolkata, Oct 24 (PTI) The decomposed body of a youth, suspected to have been murdered, was found in a room of a hotel in central Kolkata on Friday, police said.
The body of the youth, identified as Rahul Lal, was stacked in the locked wardrobe of a loft bed in the hotel on Rafi Ahmed Kidwai Road near Park Street.
As new guests checked into the hotel and were allotted the same room, they complained of a foul smell and hotel authorities, after searching the room, found the body, a senior officer said.
The hotel authorities said three persons had checked into the room two days ago and stayed for two days and that photocopies of their Aadhaar cards and other documents have been handed over to the police.
However, two of them checked out on late on Thursday night and handed over the room key at the reception desk, the officer said, adding the hotel authorities could not say why they did not question one less person leaving.
The booking was done by a resident of Odisha, while Lal was a resident of Picnic Garden area in Kolkata.
Stitching the sequence of events, the officer said the trio had checked into the third-floor room of the hotel two days back, “to rest and relax during Diwali”, and left at 11.20 pm on Thursday.
The hotel staff said they had not seen the deceased youth for the last two days.
Police were also examining the CCTV footage of the hotel compound and the third-floor corridor to track any other visitors to the room and the identity of the deceased.
“We suspect the man was murdered two days back on arrival inside the room and his body stuffed in the chamber of the loft bed and locked from outside.
“The two occupants checked out and handed over the room keys to the hotel authorities. When the room was later cleaned, the housekeeping staffers did not find anything,” the officer said.
However, it remains unclear why the housekeeping staffers did not get the smell and whether the loft bed wardrobe was checked at all.
Asked about this, the officer said the hotel staffers were being interrogated and police were tracking the whereabouts of the guests who had checked out earlier.
“From the CCTV footage, we are trying to track the other two hotel guests and have alerted all police stations in the state and neighbouring ones to keep a tab,” he said.
Located in a cosmopolitan area, frequented by foreign tourists, including Bangladeshis, the low-budget hotel is a little distance away from upscale Park Street. PTI SUS ACD
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