BENGALURU: A sack of mystery cargo was stashed away under the seat of a jam-packed passenger train coming from Bangarapet to Bengaluru on Tuesday night. A foul smell emanating from it forced a passenger to alert Railway Police that something was amiss. The heavy, yellow sack was on one of the unreserved coaches of the Bangarapet-Sir M Visvesvaraiah Terminal, Baiyappanahalli MEMU Special (No. 06527), and had been dumped with other luggage. The train had departed from Bangarpet at 8.45pm and chugged into SMVT at 9.45pm.
As soon as the train reached, the Railway Protection Force (RPF) removed the heavy, unclaimed gunny sack. It contained the body of a woman in her early thirties, who is suspected to have been murdered, then wrapped in saris and a blanket, and folded to fit in.
There were clear ligature marks around the neck, a source at the spot said. “They clearly reveal that she had been strangled. The body was folded up to fit into the bag, which was dumped inside the coach to escape detection. The state forensic team visited the spot and collected evidence. The death appears to have taken place earlier in the day as the body was still in a fresh state. It was sent for postmortem, and investigations are on,” the source said.
“The passenger who reached out to police was a railway employee travelling in the same compartment where the body was hidden. As soon as the train reached the station, the RPF pulled out the sack and alerted Government Railway Police (GRP) who reached post midnight and opened it,” the source said.
“It appears to be a murder, and could be someone in the family circle. Usually, those who try to dispose of bodies place them on the railway tracks so that it is run over by trains and all evidence is destroyed. The fact that someone chose to cover it like this shows the person had some concern for the deceased,” another source, familiar with railway investigations, said.
The GRP has circulated her photos on its WhatsApp groups, and distributed pamphlets with her photo across villages between Bangarapet and Bengaluru, to facilitate identification. The GRP have registered an FIR against an unknown person under section 302 (punishment for murder) and section 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence) of the IPC. Bengaluru Divisional Railway Manager Shyam Singh did not respond to calls.