Manchester based techie found dead in hotel jacuzzi along Golf Course Road

Police said CCTV footage showed Pathak taking food into his room on Sunday night. The room was found locked from the inside, and investigators found no indication that anyone had entered it

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. He was working remotely for a research and development firm based in Zurich, Switzerland, police said.

His body was found face down in the water-filled jacuzzi by hotel housekeeping staff around 6pm on Monday, after he failed to check out at the scheduled time.

Inspector Narender Sharma, station house officer of Sector 53 police station, said no foul play was suspected at this stage. “There is suspicion that he might have suffered a cardiac arrest and fallen into the water-filled jacuzzi, where he drowned. 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. Since it had become late to return to Agra, he decided to stay overnight in Gurugram. He was scheduled to check out by 11am on Monday.

“When he did not come out even after several hours, housekeeping staff opened the room with a master key around 6pm and found him dead in the jacuzzi,” the officer said.

The staff alerted the police control room, following which police personnel and forensic experts reached the hotel and began an investigation.

Police said CCTV footage showed Pathak taking food into his room on Sunday night. 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.

Police recovered a strip containing 10 tablets from the room, of which six had been consumed. 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.

Pathak had arrived in India from London on October 24 and travelled to Rishikesh with friends from his home in Agra. The group returned to Delhi on Sunday, after which his friends left and he travelled to Gurugram, police said.

His body was handed over to the family after an autopsy on Tuesday. 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.