A day after he joined work, a domestic help at multi-crore land scam accused Ashok Malhotra’s house in Mukherjee Nagar was found dead on Wednesday morning.

Blood oozing from mouth and a slit on his neck, the help, identified as Hari Shankar Shah, was declared dead on arrival at Bara Hindu Rao Hospital, the police said.

Police officials said Malhotra found the help dead at 11.30 am. Arrested by the CBI on August 7, Malhotra is out on bail at present. He lives in 1310, Mukherjee Nagar, Northwest Delhi.

Malhotra has told the police that Shah was in the bathroom in the domestic help’s quarter of the house. He reportedly broke the bathroom door with two other household helps and found Shah unconscious.

The scam-accused called the police then.

Police officials said Shah had joined duty at Malhotra’s house on Tuesday morning. He had been hired from Sewa Placement Agency. The agency’s owner, one Amita, said Shah had rejoined her agency about a week ago after returning from home (in Bihar). Malhotra, she said, needed a replacement after his original household help went home — to Nepal. “I immediately sent Shah to his house,” Amita said.

Around 8.30 this morning, Amita said, she received a call from Shah: he was apparently suffering from an upset stomach and told her that Malhotra had given him some medicines. According to Amita, Shah also rang up his brother in Bihar and told him that he was not well.

At Malhotra’s house, meanwhile, his other helps said neither he nor family members were at home. One of the helps said Malhotra was “very disturbed” following the morning’s incident.

Police said a case will be registered after examining the postmortem report. They said it still is not clear whether it was a natural death, murder or suicide.