A 37-year-old engineer was found dead in the jacuzzi of a hotel in Gurugram’s Sector 53 on Golf Course Road, police said on Tuesday. Investigators have recovered a strip of medicine from his room and sent it for forensic examination to establish whether it could have contributed to his death.
The victim, Pranjil Pathak, hailed from Old Idgah Colony in Agra, Uttar Pradesh, and had been living in Manchester for the past three years. “There is suspicion that he might have suffered a cardiac arrest and fallen into the water-filled jacuzzi, where he drowned. Since it had become late to return to Agra, he decided to stay overnight in Gurugram. The room was found locked from the inside, and investigators found no indication that anyone had entered it. Hotel management had initially assumed that he was asleep and might extend his stay when he did not check out at 11am. The strip did not carry any identifying information and has been sent for forensic analysis to establish the medicine’s composition and whether it could have caused death.
Inspector Narender Sharma, station house officer of Sector 53 police station, said no foul play was suspected at this stage. Police recovered a strip containing 10 tablets from the room, of which six had been consumed. His father, PP Pandey, gave a statement to the police, based on which an inquiry under Section 194 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita was initiated, Sharma said.
He was working remotely for a research and development firm based in Zurich, Switzerland, police said. However, his viscera samples have been preserved for forensic analysis, and a detailed post-mortem report is awaited to ascertain the exact cause of death,” he said. A senior police officer, aware of the investigation, said Pathak had booked the hotel through a mobile application after dropping a friend at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport on Sunday night and meeting his fiancée. He was scheduled to check out by 11am on Monday. Police said CCTV footage showed Pathak taking food into his room on Sunday night. His body was handed over to the family after an autopsy on Tuesday.
The staff alerted the police control room, following which police personnel and forensic experts reached the hotel and began an investigation.
