'No CCTV recording hampering investigation into hotel murder'

The city hotel, where a woman and a seven-year-old girl were killed mysteriously, had no system of recording footages of the CCTV installed at its reception area, which was in violation of the guidelines laid down by Kolkata police.
"The casual approach of the hotel authorities has helped the accused flee without facing any problem. The absence of any recording system of the CCTV footages has made things quite difficult for investigators to get a clear picture of the accused," a Kolkata Police officer said today.
"They (hotel authorities) were also too casual in double checking the papers the accused had produced. They had failed to notice that the photo on the identity card was not that of the person who was checking into the hotel," he said.

Police on Monday recovered bodies of a woman and girl child who had checked into the hotel on Rafi Ahmed Kidwai Road in central Kolkata along with the accused man, who had registered them as his family.
The accused had produced a stolen voter identity card of a Bihar resident Shambhunath Gupta to get a room there, the police officer said.
Asked about the investigation into the case, the officer said "It is in a critical stage and we will not be able to divulge much about the probe. We are yet to confirm identities of the woman and the girl."

In the wake of 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, the city police in 2008 had revised security rules for accommodation in a hotel.
As per the revised rules hotels were instructed that besides installing CCTVs and door frame metal detectors, baggage scanners must be in place for luggage checks while the CCTV footage must be kept as back-up.
Every guest would have to provide some sort of identity proof and if a guest refused to follow these rules, the hotel management should deny entry.