Durgapur, Aug. 10: A doctor who disappeared yesterday morning from Durgapur station returned today and told police that he had fallen unconscious after smoking a cigarette given by an “acquaintance”. When he woke up, he found himself along the railway tracks in Dhanbad.

The doctor, Supriyo Bhaduri, 45, said he knew the youth who approached him outside the station around 10.

“I knew the youth who offered me the cigarette but I can’t recall his name. He came to me with a patient a few days ago. I am a smoker and so I took the cigarette when he offered it. But after a few puffs, I blacked out,” said Bhaduri, who runs his own nursing home in the Durgapur station area.

When he woke up around 11 last night, he found himself lying beside the tracks near Mugma station in Dhanbad, about 200km from Durgapur, Bhaduri said.

The doctor took a train to Asansol and informed the Government Railway Police, who alerted the Coke Oven police station in Durgapur where Bhaduri stays.

The police took him home around 2.30am and have started a probe.

Bhaduri had gone to the station to find out about train timings when he met the youth.

“When I woke up beside the rail tracks, the back of my head and left shoulder were aching. My wrist watch and Rs 25 kept in my shirt pocket had been taken away,” Bhaduri said.

“However, I also had Rs 650 in my purse and a cellphone, those were there. The phone was switched off,” the doctor added.

Asked whether he suspected anyone, Bhaduri said there were three persons he had in mind, but did not give any names.

The doctor had called his family from Mugma. They had lodged a missing diary at the Coke Oven police station by then.

“We have started an investigation. Nothing more can be said now. The doctor had not received any threat calls,” said D.S. Rudra, the additional superintendent of police of Durgapur.