A bright young woman pictured in her graduation robe at Presidency University barely a fortnight ago was found dead along with an unconscious roommate from Kurseong at their paying guest accommodation in the College Street neighborhood on Sunday morning.
Police said Sumantika Banerjee, a 22-year-old from Jalpaiguri studying physics at Presidency, died of suspected poisoning after apparently being unconscious for several hours. Her roommate Subarna Lama, a Kurseong girl looking for a bank job since completing her BTech at Kalyani, is in hospital but stable.
Sumantika was sprawled in bed with froth at the mouth while Subarna was unconscious when their landlady got the door to their room prised open in the presence of a police team at 10.10am. Both were taken to Calcutta Medical College and Hospital, around 100 meters from the building, where doctors declared Sumantika dead.
Rama Chowdhury, who owns the ground-floor room at 8 Arpuli Lane (now called Surendra Lal Pyne Lane), had been alerted by a call from Sumantika's family in Jalpaiguri minutes earlier. Sipra, the young woman's mother, had tried contacting her daughter several times between 7am and 9am but the calls went unanswered.
Rama and her husband were being questioned at Muchipara police station until late on Sunday. "We want some details about the two girls, especially the food that was served to them last night," an officer at the police station said.
According to Subarna's statement to the police, she had little idea what made her and Sumantika fall sick.
"We had pumpkin curry and lentils prepared by Mashi (the cook at the PG accommodation) on Saturday evening. I ate a little rice because I had had noodles earlier in the evening. Sumantika had chapattis; she was hungry. She also had Horlicks," the police officer quoted her as saying.
A doctor at the CMCH said Subarna had symptoms of poisoning. "We have performed gastric lavage (stomach pumping) and the samples have been sent for forensic tests."
A source said the post-mortem on Sumantika didn't reveal any injuries, external or internal. The viscera has been sent for forensic tests. "That should reveal the nature of poisoning but it often takes months for reports of forensic tests to arrive," the source said.
Police officers who had entered the girls' room on Sunday morning said they were greeted by a pungent smell. "The room doesn't have proper ventilation either. But we didn't find any sign of alcohol, drug or substance abuse in the room," an officer said.
According to landlady Rama Chowdhury, Sumantika seemed unwell on Saturday and had fainted twice. Her friends at Presidency University said she had injured her wrist recently and was on painkillers.
Subarna told the police she woke up at 2am and vomited. "Sumantika was awake then. She told me she was feeling uncomfortable and not being able to sleep," a police officer quoted Subarna as saying.
Subarna said she heard knocks on the door in the morning but was unable get up and open it. When she asked Sumantika to do so, the MSc student didn't respond.
The person knocking on the door had apparently come to serve tea and biscuits, as is the routine, around 8am.
The next thing Subarna remembers is waking up in a hospital bed at 11.30am.
Although the room is meant for four persons, only Sumantika and Subarna were there on Saturday night. The other two inmates hadn't returned from home after the Christmas-New Year holidays.
Sumantika too had visited her parents in Jalpaiguri and returned to Calcutta on Saturday morning. Subarna came in the evening. "Sumantika opened the door for me," she told the police from bed number 105 in the female ward at CMCH.
The PG facility in Arpuli Lane houses 14 boarders in four rooms, all on the ground floor of the two-storey building. A domestic help employed by the landlady serves dinner to the paying guests at 9pm and collects the dishes around 8 the next morning. The rooms on the ground floor don't have attached toilets. "All the toilets and bathrooms are outside," a resident said.
Sumantika last spoke to her mother over the phone around 10pm on Saturday. "She had asked her mother to call her around 7am on Sunday," her uncle Bhaskar Banerjee said from Jalpaiguri before leaving for Calcutta with some relatives.
"At 9am on Sunday, Sipra called the landlady because Sumantika wasn't taking her calls. The lady called us after some time and told us about her death," Bhaskar said.
Sumantika was the eldest child of her parents. Her father Debasish is employed with the Life Insurance Corporation of India. Her younger brother is a student of Class X.
Subarna, from Naya Busty in Kurseong, had studied at Kalyani Government Engineering College. Her father Sanjay Lama is a retired tea estate supervisor.
Sanjay said he had spoken to his daughter on Saturday. "She called me around 7.30pm," he said. "Today, at 10.30am, we got a call from Calcutta police saying my daughter had been admitted to a hospital."
The Lamas will reach Calcutta on Monday. "A relative of ours living in Sealdah is now by Subarna's side," her father said.
Source: Telegraph
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| Girl from Kurseong Found Unconscious in Kolkata, Her Room Mate Dead |
Sumantika was sprawled in bed with froth at the mouth while Subarna was unconscious when their landlady got the door to their room prised open in the presence of a police team at 10.10am. Both were taken to Calcutta Medical College and Hospital, around 100 meters from the building, where doctors declared Sumantika dead.
Rama Chowdhury, who owns the ground-floor room at 8 Arpuli Lane (now called Surendra Lal Pyne Lane), had been alerted by a call from Sumantika's family in Jalpaiguri minutes earlier. Sipra, the young woman's mother, had tried contacting her daughter several times between 7am and 9am but the calls went unanswered.
Rama and her husband were being questioned at Muchipara police station until late on Sunday. "We want some details about the two girls, especially the food that was served to them last night," an officer at the police station said.
According to Subarna's statement to the police, she had little idea what made her and Sumantika fall sick.
"We had pumpkin curry and lentils prepared by Mashi (the cook at the PG accommodation) on Saturday evening. I ate a little rice because I had had noodles earlier in the evening. Sumantika had chapattis; she was hungry. She also had Horlicks," the police officer quoted her as saying.
A doctor at the CMCH said Subarna had symptoms of poisoning. "We have performed gastric lavage (stomach pumping) and the samples have been sent for forensic tests."
A source said the post-mortem on Sumantika didn't reveal any injuries, external or internal. The viscera has been sent for forensic tests. "That should reveal the nature of poisoning but it often takes months for reports of forensic tests to arrive," the source said.
Police officers who had entered the girls' room on Sunday morning said they were greeted by a pungent smell. "The room doesn't have proper ventilation either. But we didn't find any sign of alcohol, drug or substance abuse in the room," an officer said.
According to landlady Rama Chowdhury, Sumantika seemed unwell on Saturday and had fainted twice. Her friends at Presidency University said she had injured her wrist recently and was on painkillers.
Subarna told the police she woke up at 2am and vomited. "Sumantika was awake then. She told me she was feeling uncomfortable and not being able to sleep," a police officer quoted Subarna as saying.
Subarna said she heard knocks on the door in the morning but was unable get up and open it. When she asked Sumantika to do so, the MSc student didn't respond.
The person knocking on the door had apparently come to serve tea and biscuits, as is the routine, around 8am.
The next thing Subarna remembers is waking up in a hospital bed at 11.30am.
Although the room is meant for four persons, only Sumantika and Subarna were there on Saturday night. The other two inmates hadn't returned from home after the Christmas-New Year holidays.
Sumantika too had visited her parents in Jalpaiguri and returned to Calcutta on Saturday morning. Subarna came in the evening. "Sumantika opened the door for me," she told the police from bed number 105 in the female ward at CMCH.
The PG facility in Arpuli Lane houses 14 boarders in four rooms, all on the ground floor of the two-storey building. A domestic help employed by the landlady serves dinner to the paying guests at 9pm and collects the dishes around 8 the next morning. The rooms on the ground floor don't have attached toilets. "All the toilets and bathrooms are outside," a resident said.
Sumantika last spoke to her mother over the phone around 10pm on Saturday. "She had asked her mother to call her around 7am on Sunday," her uncle Bhaskar Banerjee said from Jalpaiguri before leaving for Calcutta with some relatives.
"At 9am on Sunday, Sipra called the landlady because Sumantika wasn't taking her calls. The lady called us after some time and told us about her death," Bhaskar said.
Sumantika was the eldest child of her parents. Her father Debasish is employed with the Life Insurance Corporation of India. Her younger brother is a student of Class X.
Subarna, from Naya Busty in Kurseong, had studied at Kalyani Government Engineering College. Her father Sanjay Lama is a retired tea estate supervisor.
Sanjay said he had spoken to his daughter on Saturday. "She called me around 7.30pm," he said. "Today, at 10.30am, we got a call from Calcutta police saying my daughter had been admitted to a hospital."
The Lamas will reach Calcutta on Monday. "A relative of ours living in Sealdah is now by Subarna's side," her father said.
Source: Telegraph
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