Manish Agarwal. Picture by Sanjoy Chattopadhyaya

A 24-year-old Dum Dum youth, missing since February 21, was found dead at Dhapa on Thursday morning.

Police suspect Manish Agarwal, who was studying to become a chartered accountant, was murdered. The body has been sent for post-mortem.

Manish was last seen walking out of a Camac Street office where he was conducting an audit around 5.30pm on February 21.

“Witnesses said he was in a hurry. He switched off his cellphone around 4.30pm, after speaking to sister Ritu, mother Rekha and two friends. He told his mother he would return home after attending a coaching class in Lake Gardens,” said an officer.

When Manish failed to return even late at night, his family lodged a missing persons diary with Dum Dum and Shakespeare Sarani police stations.

The next day, father Shankarlal Agarwal, who runs a business in bottled water, met home secretary Prasad Ranjan Ray, and senior officers of the CID and the detective department of Calcutta police.

A police team rushed to Dhapa on being informed by a local farmer about a corpse. “The body was at least three days old. Shankarlal identified the slippers as Manish’s,” the officer added.

“It seems he was strangled. There were ligature marks on his neck and laceration marks on the hands,” said Praveen Kumar, the police superintendent of South 24-Parganas.

The police have recovered Manish’s cellphone, wallet and handkerchief. A gold chain was missing. The wallet contained his driving licence bearing a Burtola address. “The youth’s elder brother Satish used to live at the address for some time,” the officer said.