CST Road murder: Police yet to ascertain the woman’s identity

Unidentified woman found dead in a suitcase near a metro rail construction site in Mumbai. Police investigating to determine her identity and catch the murderer.

MUMBAI: The police are yet to identify the woman whose body was found in a suitcase near the metro rail construction site at CST Road in Kurla West on Sunday. Local police and crime branch sleuths are enquiring in Christian localities in Kalina and Kurla to ascertain her identity – they assume she was Christian, as she was wearing a cross-shaped pendant. Police teams are also checking in slum pockets in Kurla and nearby areas, as the murderer might have tried to mislead the police by placing the pendant on the deceased, said a crime branch officer who is a part of the probe.

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“We have been investigating the matter from all possible angles and several teams have been formed to find out leads,” said senior police inspector Ashok Khot of the Kurla police station.

The woman’s pictures have been circulated in neighbouring areas and shared with all police stations in the city. CCTV footage from Santacruz, Bandra Kurla Complex and Kurla is also being scrutinized to ascertain the routes that persons who dumped the woman’s body may have taken, said the crime branch officer.

The incident came to light after a local shopkeeper spotted the suitcase around 11:30am on Sunday. When he tried to check it, he found it was heavy, and alerted others. When people gathered there opened it, they saw a woman’s body inside and alerted the police.

Police officials reached the spot and sent the body to a civic hospital for autopsy. Preliminary reports suggested that the woman, wearing a T-shirt and track pants, was aged 25-30 years. A case was registered under section 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) against an unknown person at the Kurla police station.