A 29-year-old contractual worker fell to his death from a mango tree while plucking fruits on the premises of Tata Steel in Bistupur early on Friday.

Kaushik Barik's tragic end sparked chaos as his co-workers, alleging that it was a case of murder and not mishap, tried to prevent the body from being taken for post-mortem at MGM Medical College in Dimna.

Barik, a resident of Jugsalai, used to work for a contractual firm SGB Scaffolding Pvt Ltd located inside the company premises. According to Bistupur OC Jitendra Kumar, Barik scaled the mango tree located near the firm's godown and was busy plucking fruits when he lost his balance and dropped around 20 feetto the ground at 5am.

"He sustained grievous head injuries and died on the spot. We carried out an inquest on the body after taking down the statements of his colleagues, which suggested mishap. Still we sent the body for post-mortem so that there remains no doubt about the cause of death," the OC added.

But around 30 fellow contractual workers rushed to the medical college to stop police from sending the body for post-mortem. They tried to take back the body forcibly and also manhandled a policeman guarding it.

"The workers tried to prevent the police from getting the post-mortem done. We had to send reinforcements from MGM and Sitaramdera police stations to control the situation," Jitendra said.

MGM OC Vinod Kumar said he received a call about the ruckus from the medical college's forensic department.

"When I went to the spot, I found around 30 people blocking the ambulance carrying the body. I convinced them to let us do our job," Vinod added.

One of the workers claimed that no one had seen Barik plucking mangoes or falling down from the tree.

"Therefore, we suspect that he was killed by someone. We wanted to take back the body for demanding compensation from the company," said the worker, not willing to be named.

Head of corporate communications, Tata Steel, Amresh Sinha later issued a statement, saying that there was an accidental death on the company premises early in the morning.

"A 29-year-old man, who was a worker of SGB Scaffolding Pvt Ltd, was killed after falling down from a mango tree near the contract firm's godown. A doctor from the nearby first-aid station inside the company premises examined the victim, who was already dead," Sinha told The Telegraph, adding that they had informed police for taking necessary action.