Barbil: Mystery surrounds the death of an assistant chef of a hotel here who was found hanging from the ceiling in one of the rooms of the staff quarters Tuesday night. The deceased has been identified as Pabitra Kishore Das, 24, a resident of Arangabad area under Bari police station limits in Jajpur district. His family, however, alleged foul play and said Pabitra had been murdered when they were informed Wednesday. Police said that Pabitra had joined duty at the hotel March 28. Hotel sources informed that he was working efficiently and they did not notice anything amiss.
However, a couple of other staff of the hotel found him hanging from one of the rooms. Immediately, the management of the hotel informed the police. Personnel from the Barbil Town police station reached the spot and brought down the body. They then sent it for post-mortem and initiated a probe into the incident. Police said that only the post-mortem report will help them ascertain whether it is a case of suicide or some foul play is involved. They are interrogating members of the deceased’s family as well as the hotel staff. Pabitra’s family members asserted that he couldn’t have died by suicide. They said he was very happy the day he joined at the hotel.