Cops scan missing women’s list to identify ‘hacked’ body

Around 150 other complaints were forwarded to the city police by late Monday evening about women missing from elsewhere in the state. However,the victim’s identity has not been established yet,officials said.

The police have also released images of the victim’s clothes,now identified as a blue long skirt and a black sleeveless top,which were found in the gunny bag after a rag-picker alerted pavement dwellers when he smelt a strong stench. The police later found a severed body part (from waist down and above the knee) and sent it for forensic examination.

The initial theory of the killer tossing the bag from the Sea Link has been ruled out,said officials. “The decomposed flesh would have borne marks from fish bites had it been in the sea. There are no such signs. The body part has been sent to J J hospital for extraction of the woman’s DNA,” said a crime branch official.

The police said the woman’s autopsy report would reveal if she had been sexually assaulted before her body was hacked. What earlier looked like fresh stitches have now been proven to be stretch marks on the woman’s abdomen,indicating she might have recently delivered a baby,they said.

According to police,there are no CCTV cameras under the Lal Matti bridge at Bandra Reclamation where the woman’s body was found and hence it is proving difficult to analyse information about vehicles that moved through the area.