According to his relatives, the deceased, Mritunjoy Ghosh, worked for a housekeeping company and had been deputed in the loading department of the Camac Street outlet of Pantaloons for the last two months. Ghosh was a resident of Ghoshpara in Kalikapur while his family lives in Champahati in South 24-Paraganas.

On Tuesday, Ghosh came for work as usual. “As far as we are concerned, there was no reason for him to commit suicide. He was happy with his work,” said his brother-in-law Susanto Mallick.

“At 12:30 pm, we got a call saying that my father had stolen some money and they had decided to take police action,” said Monojit ghosh (23), the elder son of the deceased.

Monojit is a second-year student of City College in Kolkata. When Monojit arrived at the store around 3 pm, he was made to wait outside for over an hour.

“Around 4:15 pm, they said my father was at the Lifeline nursing home. We rushed there and came to know that he had died,” said Monojit.

Police said they believed the man had hanged himself in one of the store rooms of the retail outlet between 11 am and noon on Tuesday.

The body was sent for post-mortem on Wednesday morning and by evening, the family claimed the body of Ghosh.

“He was an outsourced employee and not a Pantaloons staffer. The matter is under police investigation,” Atul Takle, head, corporate communications, Pantaloon retail, told The Indian Express from Mumbai.