The body of a woman was found stuffed in a trolley bag in a drain at a residential area in Baguiati on Tuesday morning.
The body, clad in a yellow T-shirt and leggings, has been sent for post-mortem to RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, police said.
The identity of the woman could not be established till Tuesday evening.
The police said her photograph was circulated across adjoining police stations.
This was the third body to have been disposed of in a suitcase or a trolley bag in the last two months. In February, two women were caught trying to dispose of the body of an elderly woman relative in a trolley bag at Ahiritola Ghat. Blood stains on the bag and the way the women were struggling to drag it had raised suspicion among passersby.
In March, two men in their 30s who had hired an app cab and were trying to get rid of a suitcase in a pond at Ghola, Sodepur, caught the attention of the driver, who alerted the cops.
On Tuesday, a rag picker was the first to spot the black trolley bag in a drain adjoining a dumping ground in Baguiati.
“He found some human hair sticking out of the suitcase and alerted residents of the neighbourhood,” said an officer of Baguiati police station.
Deshbandhu Nagar, where the trolley bag was found, is a residential area with mostly standalone homes.
“The area is generally used to dump old things or garbage. It is scary that someone came to our neighbourhood to dump this suitcase,” said a resident.
The cops said they were collecting footage from the nearest CCTV cameras to check for any suspicious movement of vehicles or people.
A senior police officer said in such cases, killers usually try to dispose of the body far away from the crime scene, and often hire or engage vehicles to carry the body to the chosen dumping spot.
Baguiati police registered a suo motu murder case against unknown persons. No one had been arrested till Tuesday evening.