Bhubaneswar, Feb. 6: The Government Railway Police recovered bodies of two teenage hotel management students from the railway tracks near VSS Nagar Postal Colony here this morning.

The police suspect foul play and are investigating the matter. The deceased were identified as Abhinav Panda, 19, of Jamshedpur, Jharkhand, and Koustav Dasgupta, 19, of Calcutta in Behala police limits.

Both were first-year students of the Centre-run Institute of Hotel Management Catering Technology and Applied Nutrition in VSS Nagar. The police said the duo, who were staying in the college hostel, had gone missing on Tuesday night.

College authorities said they had lodged a “missing persons” report with Saheed Nagar police when the two students did not return to their hostel.

“During roll call at 10.30pm before dinner, we found that Abhinav and Koustav were missing from the hostel. We thought they might have gone to visit their friends, who stay nearby, without informing us. We looked for them everywhere, but in vain. So, we informed the police,” said hostel warden Tapan Kumar Pattnaik.

The cops in a police control room (PCR) van visited the hostel at night and asked the authorities to file a missing persons report.

“We did as we were told. However, in the morning we received information that their bodies were found,” said Pattnaik.

The police said while Koustav’s body was found on the tracks, Abhinav’s was lying around 10 feet away from the tracks.

“It seemed that Koustav was crushed under the train and Abhinav was dragged by the speeding train after being hit. Their bodies bore several injury marks, which could be the effect of the train hit. But we cannot say now whether it was an accident or suicide,” said a police officer investigating the matter.

S.M. Sidique, a senior lecturer of the college, rubbished the suicide theory.

“They never complained about anything in the past. Their death seems to be accidental,” said the lecturer, adding that both of them were meritorious students.

The logic behind the accident assumption, the police say, is that they might have been hit while using the rail tracks as a shortcut to their hostel.

Koustav’s father Kamal Dasgupta, a schoolteacher, reached the Capital Hospital here today. He stated in the police inquest report: “I visited the accident spot and from what I heard from the college authorities and the police, it seems to be an accident.”

After post-mortem, the police handed over Koustav’s body to his family.

Abhinav’s parents reached the hospital this evening but would take his body tomorrow after the autopsy. A local MLA in Jamshedpur provided the parents with an ambulance before they left for Bhubaneswar in the afternoon to bring the body back. Abhinav’s father is a Tata Steel employee and his elder brother Arindam an MBA working in Pune.

At 7pm they were in Balasore, according to neighbour Abhay Singh.

Police said as per the stationmaster’s version, the two bodies were seen this morning.

“Had the students come in front of the train, the driver could have seen them and issued a memo to the guard. However, it seems that they were walking too close to the tracks and got dragged by the train and killed,” said a police official.

“We will visit the area in the evening and ask local residents if any of them had seen anything. Once the post-mortem report is out, it will help us with the inquiry,” said a police officer.