KOLKATA: The mysterious death of a 21-year-old call centre employee at a rented accommodation in an apartment complex at Tiljala has led to his family suspecting foul play.

Originally a resident of Beckbagan Row in Karaya Yasser Iqbal was found hanging from the ceiling fan with a cloth tied around his neck around 9.15am on Wednesday. He was rushed to SSKM Hospital, where he was declared dead on arrival.Though the deceased’s family has alleged murder by his girlfriend — who too reportedly works at a call centre — they were yet to file any complaint of homicide.

“We had contacted them and asked them to lodge a complaint after they claimed of finger marks on Iqbal’s neck. Even if they have a rethink, we have asked them to communicate the same in writing. The family said it will consult a lawyer once the burial is over. Meanwhile, the post-mortem has been completed and we are awaiting the report,” said an investigating officer.

The Tiljala police are treating this as a case of unnatural death until the post-mortem proves otherwise. “The investigations will continue. We will also record the statement of the girl, the building guards and other people to track down his movement since last night. For this, details of the victim’s cellphone and personal stuff, like credit cards, have also been sought from Iqbal’s family. This will be analysed to understand whether there was any foul play,” a police officer said.Police said Iqbal would come to this apartment only on weekends. This is the third time that he was here, said sources.

“He had befriended a 21-year-old woman through Facebook and the two had just started dating. The woman is an orphan and has a distant relative staying at Entally. But she had severed ties with him,” said an investigating officer.The cops said they were talking to neighbours in Asrayqa Residency at Tiljala where the incident took place. “We are working on developing leads after recording statements of co-workers, neighbours and relatives,” said an officer, adding that it would be the final post-mortem report and an analysis of call details of the deceased that will determine next police action.A building resident said, “We were completely unaware of the incident and have come to know of it only when police had arrived. The person who died usually kept to himself and was not overtly friendly with other flat residents. We knew little about his background. We did not find anything suspicious either.”

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