Patna: Patna police recovered the body of a 56-year old man from a hotel room under Pirbahore police station area on Friday morning. Manoj Singh, who works as a medical representative for a pharmaceutical company, was living in one of the rooms of Janta Hotel on Govind Mitra Road.

According to hotel sources, on Friday morning, hotel staff got suspicious as a foul smell was emanating from the room. On opening the room, they found Manoj lying in bed with his entire body swollen.

Roopkant, the hotel manager, said: "Foul smell was emanating from the room. The room's door was half open. On entering it we noticed Manoj's swollen body. The police and the hotel owner were immediately informed."

The manager further said: "Manoj was last seen on June 20 (Wednesday), after he reached the hotel around 8pm. He was a medical representative (MR) looking after a pharmaceutical company's business in Bihar, Jharkhand and Odisha and used to be on tour most of the time."

Around 8pm on Wednesday, Manoj reached the hotel, entered his room and had dinner which he used to prepare himself inside the room. The hotel staff said they did not check on not seeing him next day, assuming he was tied up.

Manoj hails from Indore in Madhya Pradesh and was living at one of the rooms at the hotel's fourth floor since 2014. As he is a middle-aged, he generally prepared food in his hotel room, for which he had taken permission from the hotel authorities.

"Prima facie, it appears to be a natural death," Pirbahore police station house officer (SHO) Gulam Sarwar said. "But the body has been sent for post-mortem as it could even be a case of suspected poisoning."

The SHO, however, claimed the body did not bear any internal injury nor was any suicide note recovered.

Some of Manoj's relatives, living on Boring Road, and others in Indore have been informed about the incident. The SHO claimed the police will try to find out more about Manoj's medical history.