Whodunnit: Bidhan Sarani pipeline pit throws up woman's body
Times of India | 14 July 2024
Representative image KOLKATA: The decomposed body of a woman was recovered from a pit dug up by KMC on busy Bidhan Sarani near Kashi Bose Lane on Saturday. The pit was dug up to lay a new pipeline but covered with loose soil after KMC finished work on July 9. On Saturday, locals smelt something foul and informed police. The identity of the woman is yet to be established.
Locals claimed it was after noon on Saturday that they smelt something foul.Local resident Benimadhab Choudhury said: "We got a smell in the afternoon. When I went closer, I saw the body. I immediately called the police." The police arrived and recovered the body, cordoning off the area.
The spot from where the body was recovered was dug up by KMC a few days ago to lay a new pipeline. Sources said the KMC team had completed their work on July 9 evening. Since then, the dug-up area was covered with soil.
"We found the dead body of a woman who was wearing minimal clothes," said an officer from Burtolla police station that is investigating the case. A video of the recovery shows the pit, just in the mouth of Kashi Bose Lane, barely 2ft deep. The woman had both her hands and legs thrust below the road surface, as if someone had rolled her in.
"The manner in which she was dumped suggests that there can be foul play involved in her death. If she had, say, slipped and fallen, both her legs and hands could be no neatly rolled over from the actual fall site. However, we are checking CCTV footage and going through piles of missing case pages for leads," said an officer.
Locals claimed that the dug-up area was not filled properly nor was any guard rail put around it to warn motorists and pedestrians that final laying of road was pending. "The dug-up portion was not filled up properly closer to the tram tracks," claimed Atish Nag, a local resident.
Another local resident, Vinodkumar Barui, mentioned that the road had been dug up for water supply work a few days ago and was later covered with soil. Barui speculated that the woman might have fallen into the pit due to a landslide caused by rain either on or after July 10. "There are similar pits in the nearby alleys. I guess the work might not have been done properly," he said.
KMC and police denied the claims, saying if that would have been true, the area would have subsided due to movement of vehicles.
"Around 3.45pm on Saturday, on complaints of foul smell from local people, a police team was sent for inquiry. A female body in a decomposed state was found inside a pit that was originally dug by Kolkata Municipal Corporation to lay a new water line. It was at the crossing of Kashi Bose Lane and Bidhan Sarani. Excavation work was being conducted at that spot for the last few days but it had ended a couple of days ago," said additional CP (I) Murlidhar Sharma.
"Arrangements were made to carry out an autopsy at RG Kar hospital. As per the autopsy expert, no external mark of injury was found. The victim is a lady and aged around 40-45 years. We will ascertain the exact time and nature of death once we get the detailed post-mortem report.," added Sharma.
One of the workers involved in the KMC work, Morsalim, said: "We dug the road for the water line. The pit was later filled in but no one could have slipped into it."