UAE | Crime
Decomposed body found in Karama water tank
35-year-old domestic help apparently committed suicide as initial inquiry rules out foul play
- By Mazhar Farooqui, Deputy Editor XPRESS
- Published: 00:00 September 13, 2011
- Image Credit: Supplied
- Police were called to fish out his body and the residents were warned against using the water.
Dubai: Residents of a building in Karama were left with a sickening feeling Monday after they came to know that a dead body was floating in the water they had been using for the past three days.
Police were called into the three-storey Obaid and Rashid building near Karama Metro Station after a watchman discovered the decomposed body in the building's overhead water tank around 9.30am. The victim was identified as 35-year-old Nepalese domestic help Sushil Panti, employed by an Indian family living in the same building.
It is believed that he committed suicide by jumping into the water tank.
"Investigations are ongoing and an autopsy is being carried out, but initial findings indicate there is no criminal suspicion and the case appears to be that of suicide," said Colonel Salem Al Rumaithi, Deputy Director of the Criminal Investigation Department for Search and Investigation.
"He [Panti] believed he was possessed by a ghost. He was rapidly losing weight. We took him to a doctor who diagnosed a thyroid problem, but he would have none of it. He used to say the weight loss was the handiwork of the same ghost who he said had killed his elder brother some years back. In fact he was all set to travel to India to exorcise his imagined demons. We never thought he would take such a drastic step," said R.M, a member of the Indian family where Panti worked for three years.
Something amiss
R.M. said she immediately sensed something was amiss when Panti did not show up till late Saturday evening. "It was unusual as he hardly ventured out in the evening. We lodged a police complaint," R.M. said. R.M. added Monday morning, her husband went to check the rooftop with the building watchman. "They found Panti's slippers near the water tank," R.M. told XPRESS.
Police were called to fish out his body and the residents were warned against using the water. Panti is survived by a wife and two children.
Monday afternoon, a cleaning operation was underway with workers pumping out the contaminated water from the overhead tank.
Residents said it will take a while before they could condition their mind to use the water again. "It's so sickening to even think that we have been using this water for cooking and bathing all this while," said an Indian housewife.
— With inputs from Dina Aboul Hosn, Staff Reporter
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