Guwahati, Feb. 12: The body of one of two students of Gurukul Grammar Senior Secondary School, who were feared drowned in the Brahmaputra last Sunday, was recovered this morning

The river police today registered a murder case on the incident following complaints by the victims’ families who suspected foul play after tracing injury marks and bloodstains on the partially decomposed body.

Shimanta Saurav Gayan’s bloated body was found floating in the river in the Kharghuli area here by two women around 7.30am.

The family members of Sahir Ahmed, the other victim, who had been searching for the bodies in that area since Sunday, were the first to be informed after the two women raised the alarm.

Shimanta, along with Sahir, both Class IX students of the school, had gone to the riverbank in the Noonmati area for a picnic when the two were believed to have been swept away by the river.

Sahir’s body is yet to be traced.

“We immediately reported the matter to the police as well as Shimanta’s family. The body was pulled ashore in presence of a magistrate,” Sahir’s father, Jahirul Islam said.

Later, Shimanta’s sister Rajashree identified the body as that of her brother.

A post mortem was conducted at the Gauhati Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) this afternoon after an inquest by executive magistrate Mridul Kumar Das.

“There were injury marks on his body and signs of profuse bleeding, from which our suspicion that it could be murder gained ground,” Shimanta’s cousin Pratim Hazarika said.

“We suspected foul play from the very beginning and that’s why we had filed a first information report (FIR) with police seeking an inquiry. We have doubts that due to some reason, a scuffle might have broken out between the boys, as a result of which Shimanta and Sahir fell into the river,” a relative of Shimanta, Moromti Bordoloi, said.

Echoing him, Sahir’s father said he had also filed an FIR, suspecting foul play

With the families of both the victims suspecting foul play, the river police registered a murder case and have started investigations.

“Based on the FIRs, we have registered a case (number 6/2010) under Section 302 (murder) and Section 34 (creating nuisance in public place) of the IPC at Sualkuchi police station of the river police,” a police source said.

The source said that only the autopsy report would confirm whether the injuries were sustained before or after death.