Calcutta, July 30: A jawan scanning Calcutta airport for explosives ahead of Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee's return from London fell to death through a gap in a glass walkway camouflaged by a plastic sheet.

Gora Charan Singh, 40, from Mayurbhanj in Odisha, a jawan with the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), landed on the basement from what airport officials described as a service corridor just inside the terminal building.

His head was smashed after a 12-feet fall from the arrival lounge to the basement where airlines and other agencies have their offices.

At around 2.45 pm, Singh was scanning the service corridor beside gate number 5B with a hand held metal detector. The corridor is used for cleaning the glass walls. One of the glass panels was broken and it was replaced with polycarbonate sheet as a temporary measure, said airport sources.

Singh, a member of CISF's bomb detection and disposal squad, was transferred to Calcutta airport from Mumbai airport in 2012, said CISF officials. They said he was staying here alone, while his family stayed in Odisha.