Siliguri, Oct. 26: Amit Agarwal, the sole heir to the Rs 300-crore empire of tea magnate Ajit Agarwal, has died under mysterious circumstances.

Amit, 30, executive director of Terai Tea Company Ltd and East Indian Produce Ltd, was found unconscious in his room at a city hotel near Darjeeling More where he had checked in last evening.

According to hotel sources, who overheard Amit’s conversation with a friend, he moved in after a family dispute.

No one from the Agarwal home on Sevoke Road was willing to speak. They haven’t lodged a police complaint either.

Police have found an empty bottle of rum and some loose pills in the room, besides a suitcase, which was locked. Amit was to have taken a flight to Calcutta today.

The manager of the hotel said Amit arrived around 6 pm yesterday. During his stay, no outsider visited him, save the hotel’s waiters and housekeepers.

“He was all alone in his room. In the evening he ordered eight pegs of rum and then took dinner — butter naan and paneer — in the room itself. Around 7.30 this morning, he had tea and gave his clothes for ironing. Around 10.30, when the housekeeping staff rang the doorbell to hand over his ironed clothes, there was no response. Finally, we broke open the door and found him lying unconscious on the bed,” a hotel staff said.

His father Ajit was immediately informed. He rushed to the hotel and took his son, who was still alive and managed to walk with support, to Sunrise Nursing Home around noon. But Sunrise owner and physician R.K. Agarwal declared him dead on arrival. “The reason for death will be ascertained after the post-mortem,” Agarwal said.

A liftman at Suraksha, a nursing home next to Sunrise who helped carry the body, said: “There was an injury mark on his head.”

Amit got married a few years ago but was divorced.