Kolkata, March 27 Investigations into the RG Kar elevator death case revealed that all three lift operators who were on duty on the night of March 20 when the incident took place were completely inebriated due to overconsumption of alcohol and were not in a position to attend to duties.
Investigation revealed that the mishap in the hospital building that houses the trauma care centre could also have happened in any other lift, since the persons who were supposed to operate those elevators were not in a position to perform their duties, an insider from the Kolkata Police said.
All three elevator operators are currently in police custody. During the investigation, they also admitted that none of them received any kind of training before they joined their duties at state-run R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital, which was a month before the mishap occurred
The combination of lack of training and the inebriated condition of the on-duty elevator operators eliminated even the last effort to rescue Arup Bandopadhyay, the victim of the mishap.
When the mishap took place, said the city police insider, even the basic idea did not strike any of the liftmen, which was to reach the basement by breaking open the elevator lock from outside and making any attempt to rescue the victim.
“In the face of interrogation, the three arrested elevator operators also claimed that being in a drunken state during night-duty is a common factor among the majority of non-medical supporting staff,” the city police insider said.
CCTV footage has confirmed that none of the three elevator operators was anywhere near any of the three elevators near the trauma care unit building after midnight, which is a corroboration of the kind of mismanagement going on within the hospital premises, especially during the night and early hours.
The Public Works Department (PWD) had outsourced the maintenance of the lifts at RG Kar Hospital to one agency, while the responsibility for providing lift operators was contracted to a different agency.
The contract with the previous agency responsible for supplying lift operators expired last February. From mid-February onwards, the PWD awarded the contract to a new agency. Consequently, a new team of lift operators was recruited by this new agency.
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