Woman strangled and dumped in bag at CST

A rail commuter walking along the railway platform made a shocking discovery - a discarded suitcase that later turned out to contain a young woman's body. The railway police who were notified of the baggage found the body packed into a suitcase abandoned at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST) yesterday.

Abandonedu00a0The discarded suitcase that contained the dead woman's body was found abandoned at platform 9 at CST yesterday

CST Government Railway Police (GRP) said that they received a call from a person at around 10.30 am who had spotted the suitcase lying at platform 9, which is used by long-distance trains, informing them of the abandoned suitcase.

"We immediately sent a team to verify the contents of the suitcase after which it was opened. Our constables found a body of a woman in her 30s in the suitcase. The lady was wearing a grey colour salwar kameez and had strangulation marks on her neck," said Somnath Tambe, police inspector at CST GRP.

Outstation victim
Police stated that they can't say who the victim is, but believe that the bag was dumped by a person who had alighted from an outstation train, which had arrived earlier. "Prior to finding the red colour trolley, the Sinhagad Express had arrived from Pune at 10 am at the same platform. We suspect the killer dumped the bag at the platform and fled," said Tambe. Prima facie evidence has led authorities to believe that the woman may have been killed a day earlier.

No clues so far
Cops have sent the body for a post-mortem to St George hospital, and have begun the process to identify the victim.

Cops are verifying all missing women records at various police stations and have also got in touch with Pune police to obtain help in identifying the victim. "There are no clues to establish the woman's identity. We have procured the CCTV footage of platform number nine, and that will help us identify who kept the bag. We are browsing through the recordings, " said Surendra Deshmukh, senior police inspector, CST GRP.

Railway police have registered a case of murder under Section 302 of Indian Penal Code, and the matter is being investigated.

Body in the bag
This is the fourth incident of this nature after bodies of two women were recovered at Juhu Beach and Sandhurst railway station earlier. CST GRP had found a body in a bag at Sandhurst road station and had managed to solve the case with the arrest of the victim's husband. Cops had identified the victim with her dress that had the address of the tailor in Mumbra. The police had also found a body of a woman at Churchgate station in a bag and her husband was arrested on the basis of the photo published in newspapers.u00a0