Policemen mill around the body on Thursday. Picture by Eastern Projections

Guwahati, Nov. 13: An owner of a beer bar was found murdered in the Pandu area of the city this morning.

The blood-soaked body of Dharmeswar Rajbongshi, 65, was spotted lying in an abandoned pit of the railways by a passerby around 6.30am. He immediately reported the matter to police.

The police said the body bore multiple marks of injury inflicted with sharp-edged weapon(s).

“The victim had his abdomen slit, besides cut marks on the forehead and chest,” a police official said.

The police were concentrating on the robbery angle as Rs 9,000 in cash, which the victim was supposed to have been carrying (as disclosed by his staff on interrogation), has gone missing.

“From preliminary investigations, it appears that the murder was committed by those who knew the routine of the victim and the assailant(s) were aware that he was carrying money,” the source said.

The victim, the owner of Rajbongshi Beer Bar in Pandu, usually walked the2km distance to his home late at night after closing the bar.

“His employees told us that he had left the bar for home around 11.30 last night,” the source said.

The police said the victim did not have known animosity with anybody and was amiable by nature. A murder case was registered at Jalukbari police station. Rajbongshi’s body was handed over to his family members after an autopsy at Gauhati Medical College and Hospital (GMCH).

“We used a sniffer dog to search the area where the body was found and will also take the help of forensic experts to examine the victim’s clothes and other belongings collected from the murder site,” the source said.

He said the sniffer dog led the police to the pair of slippers of the victim, which were lying 200 metres away from the place where the body was found.

Though the police have not made any arrests, two persons, identified as Jumoni Das and Surya Das, both neighbours of the victim, were detained for questioning.

The police officer refused to say what led them to detain the two. “I cannot disclose anything more at this stage since investigations are on,” he said.