The two battery-operated police cars that will be used to patrol Victoria Memorial. Picture by Amit Datta

The bloated body of a 27-year-old engineer was fished out of a pond in Victoria Memorial on Sunday morning, 14 hours after he left his Garia home without his cellphone.

Rajdeep Lahiri drowned between 7.30pm and 8pm on Saturday, probably after buying a ticket and entering the premises, police said after the post-mortem. “A lot of alcohol” was found in his stomach apart from mud and water.

Rajdeep’s father told cops that a Kolaghat girl and her family members had been pressuring his son to marry her even though his marriage had been fixed elsewhere.

For eight months, the engineer had been commuting over 120km daily from his home to his workplace Kolaghat Thermal Power Plant and back, despite having office quarters in Kolaghat, to avoid the girl and her family.

Relatives said Rajdeep had told his parents that he had been assaulted by the girl, her mother and some residents at Mecheda station in Kolaghat on November 3 and the incident had been weighing on his mind.

He had not returned to Kolaghat since and had been contemplating quitting.

“Rajdeep left home around 5pm on Saturday, telling his mother that he would be back for dinner. When he did not, we thought he had returned to his office quarters or was staying with a friend. We could not contact him as he had left his phone at home,” said Rajdeep’s father Himangshu Bhusan, a retired PWD employee.

On Sunday, morning walkers saw the body floating in the pond, which is 18ft to 20ft deep, around 7am and alerted security men.

“The fishes and crabs in the pond had nibbled at the body. There were no other injuries,” said a caretaker of Victoria Memorial.

Soon after the news reached Rajdeep’s parents, the girl’s family members called them to claim that the engineer had married her in a private ceremony on Saturday night, said a relative.

The death has raised questions about security on the 64-acre Victoria Memorial campus.

A dozen policemen keep an eye on the premises along with guards. A quick reaction team of police is posted outside.

Joint commissioner (headquarters) Jawed Shamim described the security arrangements as “adequate”, adding there was “scope for improvement”.

On Sunday morning, police commissioner Gautam Mohan Chakrabarti flagged off two battery driven golf carts that will be used by cops to patrol Victoria Memorial round the clock.