Metro services partially hit as body found on tracks

In a mysterious circumstance, the body of an unknown man aged about 40 years was found inside the tunnel of the North-South Metro corridor between Rabindra Sarobar and Mahanayak Uttam Kumar stations on Wednesday.

According to Metro Railway, at 9:47 am, the motorman of a Kavi Subhash-bound rake informed the central control room about the incident.

Immediately, the higher Metro officials were informed and at 10:15 am, a power block was initiated to suspend electricity connection to the third temporarily.

Meanwhile, Regent Park Police Station was also informed. Metro staff reached the spot and brought the man to Mahanayak Uttam Kumar Station where a Metro medical officer declared him dead.

Metro authorities claimed that head and leg injuries were spotted at the time of examination by the medical officer. The body was handed over to Regent Park Police Station at 10:50 am and later sent for autopsy.

During the period, truncated Metro services were run between Dakshineswar and Maidan stations. Normal service resumed from 10:59 am.

Police informed that the man’s identity was not established till Wednesday night. Police found a visiting card from his pant’s pocket, where a phone number was mentioned. When cops called on the number, the person who received the call could not recollect about any such person. Questions have cropped up about how the man reached the tunnel where no person other than some specific staff and Railway Protection Force (RPF) personnel can access with prior permission.

Though police and Metro authorities checked the CCTV footage of Rabindra Sarobar and Mahanayak Uttam Kumar Metro stations, the man was nowhere to be seen.

Sources informed that the spot where the man was found is about one kilometre from Rabindra Sarobar Station whereas the distance between the spot and the end of the tunnel on Mahanayak Uttam Kumar side is more than one kilometre.

If the person had walked along the tunnel, more than one motorman could have seen him as Metro services are run on an interval of about five minutes.

Police have registered an unnatural death case and started a probe. The cops are also waiting for the autopsy report to ascertain the cause of death and approximate time of death.