British citizen found dead in Patna hotel

Police said that the deceased has been identified as Ajay Kumar, a British national, who was originally from Nalanda district and was employed with the electricity department of UK before his retirement. The cause of death is not clear.

A retired officer of the electricity department, United Kingdom, was on Monday found dead at a hotel located in Mithapur under Jakkanpur police station, police said. The cause of death remains unknown.

British citizen found dead in Patna hotel

Police said that the deceased has been identified as Ajay Kumar, a British national, who was originally from Nalanda district.

Amit Kumar, an employee of the hotel, said that Kumar was staying at the hotel Grand Shila since January 18 in room number 103. “He checked into the hotel on the night of January 18 and had been occupying room 103, booked at a tariff of ₹1,500 per night,” he added.

He added that he had last left the hotel on Sunday afternoon and returned around 4.30pm. “After coming back to his room, he called the hotel staff to say that he wouldn’t have dinner and only asked for bananas and oranges that were delivered to his room later that evening,” he said.

By Monday morning, however, Kumar did not respond to phone calls or knocks on his door. He was not answering repeated calls. Later, the hotel staff called the police and informed about the incident, Amit said.

“He had hired a driver who used to come to the hostel for pick up and drop him at the hotel,” Amit said.

The police arrived at the scene and broke open the room. A police team, including Sadar assistant superintendent of police Abhinav, inspected the premises, reviewed the CCTV footage and checked the hotel’s entry and exit records.

Police said that a suitcase found in the room contained documents and contact details of Kumar’s family members and the police informed Kumar’s relatives abroad about his death. His body was then sent to the PMCH for a postmortem examination.

The SHO of Jakkanpur police station, Rituraj Singh, said that the cause of death is not yet clear. “We are awaiting the postmortem report. All personal belongings, including documents and currency in both Indian rupees and British pounds, have been seized. A FSL team arrived at the spot. A case has been lodged at the Jakkanpur police station in this connection,” he added.