Kolkata, March 26 (NationPress) An investigation into the tragic elevator incident at RG Kar has uncovered alarming details—lift operators at the hospital had not undergone any training for handling emergency situations and were employed only a month before the unfortunate event on March 20.

Kolkata Police detectives revealed this critical information during their questioning of the three arrested lift operators linked to the incident, where Arup Banerjee from Nager Bazar was tragically crushed between a lift and a wall.

A senior police official indicated that the Public Works Department (PWD) had assigned the maintenance of the lifts at RG Kar Hospital to one agency, while a separate agency was responsible for providing lift operators.

The previous contract for lift operators lapsed in February, leading to a new contract being awarded to a different agency mid-February. This resulted in the recruitment of a fresh team of lift operators.

Although these new operators were given a supervisor, the supervisor would leave for home at night, leaving the operators unsupervised. During police questioning, the detained lift operators confessed that, due to the absence of supervision, few would actually stay inside the lifts during their night shifts. Instead, many would sleep, listen to music, or chat to pass the time. Consequently, on the day of the incident, there were no lift operators in proximity to the lift.

The three arrested operators stated that prior to starting their roles, they were taught merely how to operate the lift. They were instructed to go to the upper floor and pull a lever to manually raise the lift if it stalled. However, they were not educated on how to respond in case of an emergency or disaster. Detectives are now gearing up to question the authorities of the agency that employed these operators regarding this serious oversight.

Additionally, the lift operators recounted that during the chaos, all three of them took a different lift down to the basement. The grille gate of that lift was also found to be locked. Upon reaching the basement, they heard Arup and his wife, Sonali, screaming for help.

The accused operators claimed they thought Arup's family was trapped inside the elevator car, unaware that Arup and his companions were actually stuck between the elevator car and the outer grille, desperately trying to survive while trapped in the elevator shaft pit.

They took that elevator back to the top floor. Once there, they cut off the power supply to Elevator No. 2 in the Trauma Care unit. Subsequently, they pulled a lever to hoist the elevator car upwards using a pulley system. This caused the elevator door to briefly open before it slammed shut violently, catching Arup's leg in the process. As the elevator car ascended slowly with Arup still trapped, he was crushed between the elevator car and the wall of the shaft.