Kolkata, March 21 Police arrested three elevator operators and two security personnel on Saturday over the death of a man who allegedly got trapped in an elevator at the state-run R G Kar Hospital a day earlier, a senior officer said.
The five individuals were detained on Friday evening after police registered an FIR under the BNS section related to culpable homicide not amounting to murder, based on a complaint lodged by the victim's father.
They were placed under arrest on Saturday with the police alleging that they were negligent in ensuring the safety of patients, their relatives, doctors, and non-medical staff of the hospital.
Those arrested have been identified as elevator operators Milan Kumar Das, Biswanath Das, and Manas Guha, and security personnel Subhadip Das and Asraf Rahman, a police official said.
The family of the victim, Arup Bannerjee, has alleged that the elevator he got stuck in was undergoing maintenance, had no operator on duty, and was not properly secured.
Bannerjee had brought his four-year-old son to the hospital when the incident occurred. His wife was reportedly in the trauma care unit at the time.
A senior hospital official on Friday said the man was bleeding from the nose when he was rescued. He was taken to the emergency unit, where he died.
The post-mortem indicated that the death was caused by "multiple trauma", including compression of the chest wall, rupture of the heart, lungs, and liver, and multiple fractures of the legs, hands, and ribs.
The injuries were ante-mortem in nature, suggesting they occurred before death, police said.
A team from the state forensic laboratory visited the Trauma Care building of the hospital and collected samples from the spot of the death, as well as the elevator shaft wall, collapsible gate, fourth-floor gate of the lift, and the ground floor.
The Kolkata Police's homicide section also visited the spot and checked the duty roster of non-medical staff and the maintenance staff of the building to find out who was on duty at that time.
The death led to a political blame game in the poll-bound state, with Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari terming it "murder".
He held Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who also heads the health department, along with Health Secretary Narayan Swaroop Nigam and hospital authorities responsible for the loss of life.
The BJP targeted the ruling Trinamool Congress, alleging systemic corruption and negligence in the state's healthcare infrastructure.
The hospital had earlier come under national spotlight following the rape and murder of a post-graduate trainee doctor on its premises in August 2024. An investigation into the case had led the investigators to look into the allegation of corruption involving Sandip Ghosh, the then principal of the medical college.
Ghosh was later arrested by the CBI in connection with the alleged irregularities and remains in jail.