A retired soldier was found shot dead on a passenger train near Jamalpur in Munger district, around 180km east of Patna, early on Thursday.

When the Bhagalpur-Jamalpur Passenger reached Jamalpur railway station around 2.20am, passengers found the body of a middle-aged man lying in a pool of blood in an empty compartment.

On being alerted, Government Railway Police (GRP) and Railway Protection Force (RPF) personnel rushed to the spot and found an army pensioner's card on the body. The deceased was identified from the card as Umesh Sah (47), a resident of Tikaranpur under the jurisdiction of Mufassil police station in Munger.

However, GRP officials were taken aback on reaching Tikaranpur. Residents told the police that no man by the name of Umesh Sah lived there. 'As a result, the body has been preserved in the morgue of the Munger Sadar hospital,' a GRP official said.

Jamalpur railway superintendent of police (SRP) Shankar Jha said the train had left Bhagalpur at 12.20am and had reached Jamalpur around 2.20am. 'It is being ascertained whether Umesh was killed at Jamalpur or somewhere else,' he told The Telegraph over the phone.

The SRP said Sah's wallet and other valuables, including his ATM card, were found intact. 'It seems that he had been killed out of personal enmity. There is no eyewitness, as most compartments were near-empty,' he added.

He added that no passenger had complained to the police about any incident of loot on the train, which also hinted at personal enmity behind the murder of the retired army man. The police also recorded the statement of some passengers who travelled from Bhagalpur to Munger.