Guwahati, May 14: City police, investigating the alleged suicide of 22-year-old student Pratim Kumar Sharma, are now looking at the murder angle.

Sharma, who went missing on Wednesday, was found dead in a hotel at Paltan Bazar last night. There were strangulation marks around his neck, based on which police suspected suicide.

"Because there were strangulation marks, we assumed that Pratim had committed suicide. But after preliminary investigation, we found his clothes were torn in places and there were injury marks on his legs and arms," Rupma Buragohain, officer-in-charge of Paltan Bazar police station, said.

Police have established the time of Pratim's death to be between 2pm and midnight on Thursday.

"Pratim's last visual was at 2pm in the CCTV surveillance of the hotel. When we found his body yesterday, it had already started decomposing. So we suspect the crime was committed on Thursday itself," said Buragohain.

Pratim, a resident of Noonmati here, was taking coaching lessons to crack government competitive exams in Indore, Madhya Pradesh. He was here on vacation, his parents said.

A family member said Pratim had a girlfriend and he was last known to be with her before he went missing.

"Pratim went out with his girlfriend saying he had a party to attend. Around 9.30pm on Wednesday, when his parents called him, he said they were in a cinema hall watching a movie. After that we had no contact with him," the family member said.

Police said Pratim's girlfriend is at present undergoing treatment after meeting with an accident at Noonmati.

"We are yet to ascertain if Pratim was present when she had the accident. We will take her statement once she recovers," Buragohain said.