Man's body found in locked trunk

Victim may have been throttled: Police

An unidentified man’s decayed body was found in a locked metal trunk in Sultanpuri in north Delhi on Sunday morning, police said.

The trunk was spotted by area residents near a municipal garbage dump around 10 am, the police said.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (Outer District) Vikramjit Singh said: “Efforts are on to identify the victim who appears to be aged around 35-40 years.”

Police sources said the body was kept in a sack which was tied on the top and placed in the trunk. There was a cloth tied on the mouth of the victim and his hands and legs were tied at the back.

“Since there are no visible injury marks on the decayed body, it seems the victim might have been throttled. The exact cause of death would be known after the post-mortem,” said an investigator.

The murder seems to have taken place over 36 hours ago as it the body had started decaying.

“There seems to be an attempt to by the killers to ensure that the trunk is not recovered easily. Effort has been made to try and suppress the decaying body’s foul smell with the help of smell of the garbage dump,” said an official.

A PCR call was received that foul smell was coming from an unattended trunk lying next to the wall of the dhaloa in Kirari Road area, police said.

“The passers-by could not open and check the trunk as it had two locks on two sides of it,” said an investigator.

A police official said there were no papers or documents found in the clothes that the victim was wearing.

“We are facing a challenge to identify the victim as CCTV footage of the area around the spot of recovery of the trunk has not yielded much,” said a police official.

After getting a public call on the unattended trunk in the morning, the crime team was rushed to the spot.

“The crime team is working on the few clues and finger prints collected from inside the metal trunk,” said an investigator.

Efforts are also on to look for missing person complaints lodged in the city to see if the victim’s body matches the description of any person reported missing in the past two days.