Bhubaneswar, July 1: The Khandagiri police recovered the body of an unidentified youth this morning at Nuagaon near Malipada on the outskirts of the city.

The body of the man, who was said to be around 28 years, was found at the side of a road.

There were marks on the wrists and neck of the deceased which showed that he had been tied up before being killed.

Locals said they had not seen the man in their area.

Manmohan Mallick, a villager, said he was the first to spot the body lying near the road in the morning.

“Soon, I called others from the village and informed the police,” said Mallick.

The villagers suspected it to be a murder case.

“Circumstances show that someone had strangulated him and dumped the body here,” said Dhiren Mallick, another villager.

Khandagiri police, who rushed to the spot after getting information, said that it appeared to be a case of unnatural death.

“We have registered an unnatural death case and sent the body to the morgue of Capital Hospital. The body will be kept there until the identity of the person is established,” said a police officer.

The police officer added that the youth might have been drunk and fallen at the spot and died.

“On inspection we could not find any deadly wounds on the body. We didn’t even find any blood marks near the body. It looks like a clear case of unnatural death,” said the officer.

The police said they would be able to send the body for post mortem unless the identity of the man is established.

“Unless we get to know about his identity we cannot send the body for postmortem. We are looking at all possible angles of the death and the investigation is going on. Once the man’s identity is established we can say more about the cause of death,” said the officer.

Two months ago the Chandaka police had recovered the body of another youth from a bush near a private college in Malipada.

The youth’s body had started decomposing as it had been lying there for more than five days.

The police could not establish the identity of the deceased then and had registered an unnatural death case.