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Updated: Feb 04, 2019 12:02 IST

The police have found a six-month-old decomposed body hidden in a box bed in a flat in Bhopal’s Bagsewania area on Sunday evening. The flat has reportedly been locked since June last year and the owners have not been seen since that time.

The police is still not sure whether the recovered body is that of a man or a woman. “Everything will become clear after the post-mortem and DNA test. We are searching for the flat owners as only they will be able to reveal how the body reached here. Prima facie it appears to be a case of murder. The body had long hair, so we are suspecting it to be that of a woman,” SP South Sampat Upadhyay said.

Police sources say the body had been kept on a mattress and wrapped with a cotton blanket, among other clothes inside the bed box. Even though the body appears to have been lying there for six months, it had not decomposed, instead it had become mummified.

Apart from the arms and legs, none of the other body parts were intact. Forensic officials are of the opinion that the body had been there for at least six months but had not decomposed as it was not in the open and the mattress and blanket had soaked up the body fluids, limiting the release of any foul odour. However, when the box bed was opened there was a strong foul smell.

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The third floor flat where the body was found belongs to Vimla Shrivastava, who worked as a clerk in the transport department, and her son Amit. Both are from Gwalior. The Shrivastavas had bought the flat from the Bhopal Development Authority in 2003 and had been staying there. Neighbours say they have not seen Amit since June 2018.

The body was discovered by Ramvir Singh Rajput, a resident of Nehru Nagar who had purchased the flat from the Shrivastavas and had also got it registered in his name.

When the time came for the Shrivastavas to hand over possession of the flat in July, they said they needed some time to vacate the flat. Rajput agreed to this. But he could not contact them after that and whenever he went to the flat, he would find it locked. On Sunday, he got a duplicate key made and got the flat opened. He had come with some labourers to clean the flat and it was during this process that they discovered the body.

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