A severed body part of a woman, from waist down and above the knee, was found wrapped in a blue plastic bag inside a gunny bag near Bandra Worli Sea Link late on Sunday. A search is under way for the remaining parts of the body, which police suspect have been deliberately spread across the city.

A murder case has been registered at Bandra police station. The police suspect that the deceased was in her late twenties. The only piece of evidence found on the flesh is a piece of cloth, which looks like a portion of a dress, police said.

The police were informed by pavement dwellers below Bandra Reclamation flyover around 10.30 pm Sunday after a rag-picker found the gunny bag atop construction debris.

Mohammed Ismail, the ragpicker who is the sole witness in the probe so far, said, "I was working on the garbage pile of construction debris. I was close to the sea shore when I found a gunny bag. There was a strong smell of decaying flesh and I alerted some pavement dwellers. We examined the bag and found the decomposed body part," said Ismail.

A preliminary probe by the autopsy authorities at Cooper Hospital have found several bruise marks on the decomposed flesh, suggesting assault. Doctors told the probe team that the body is at least two days old. The abdomen has some "fresh" stitch marks suggesting that the woman had either undergone an abortion or recently had a delivery, said officials. The blue cloth found on the body part was of a thick material and of an "expensive variety," they said.

"We suspect that the deceased was aged between 25 and 35 years. She also seems to be from a well-to-do family going by the texture of the cloth found inside the bag," said Additional Commissioner of Police (West region)Vishwas Nangre-Patil. Initial autopsy report confirms that the body was cut with a chopper, said officers. "We have sent the body part for forensic examination to extract DNA samples," said Nangre-Patil. The police are also awaiting the final medical report to confirm if she was raped and if the assault wounds are of a sexual nature.

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