Bhubaneswar, Feb. 7: The two hotel management students found dead near the railway tracks on Wednesday morning were probably drunk when they were hit by a speeding train, suspect the Bhubaneswar police.

The deceased duo, identified as Koustav Dasgupta of Calcutta and Abhinav Panda of Jamsedpur, were first-year students at the Institute of Hotel Management Catering Technology and Applied Nutrition in VSS Nagar. They used to stay in the college hostel.

Investigating officer B.N. Dhalsamant said he visited areas close to the VSS Nagar Postal Colony, where the bodies were found, on Wednesday and asked many people if they had seen the two boys near the tracks on Tuesday evening.

“Local residents said many hotel management students move around the railway tracks. Some of them even drink on the two raised platforms near the tracks on this lonely stretch. But nobody could say if these two students were present there on Tuesday evening,” said Dhalsamant.

There is a narrow walking path crossing the tracks near the Postal Colony, which is mostly used by slum dwellers to cross the tracks.

Even students of this institute use the path as a shortcut to reach Mancheswar.

“I suspect these two youths were crossing the tracks in a drunk state when the speeding train hit and dragged them along the tracks. The post-mortem report will make it clear whether they were drunk or not,” said Dhalsamant.

Roommates of the deceased students had apparently informed the college authorities that the duo used to inhale synthetic adhesive and whitener liquid for an intoxicating effect.

S.M. Sidique, a senior lecture of the college, said: “Their hostel mates and close friends have told me that they used to take substances for intoxication.

“But, we do not know whether they were drunk on Tuesday.”

“Though their mobile phones were on in the evening, they were not answering calls. But after sometime the phones were switched off and then we lodged the missing persons’ report,” said an official of the institute.

Railway police officials said that they had seized the two mobile phones from the spot. As they were damaged badly, the police haven’t yet been able to find the call list.

“We are trying to collect the call list from the SIM card. We are investigating every possible angle into the case,” said the investigating officer.