A young schoolteacher who had recently made his Tollywood debut was found dead in his Tollygunge apartment, his hands and legs tied with cloth belts and mouth gagged.

Indrajeet Chakraborty, 29, was apparently lying on a mattress in the bedroom of his rented apartment near Malancha cinema when his friends found him on Monday night.

Police suspect he was either smothered or strangulated because there was no prominent external injury. A post-mortem on Wednesday could help ascertain the cause.

A laptop and two phones are said to be missing besides the gold ring, gold earring and gold chain he had on him, but sleuths working on the case said it was too early to say if it was merely a murder for gain.

The police’s needle of suspicion points to two men who visited Indrajeet’s home hours before the incident.

Three of the victim’s friends were in the second bedroom of the 900sq ft flat on the ground floor of the three-storey Regent Colony building. But the bedroom door was apparently bolted from outside and they came to know of the incident only after a fourth friend unlocked the door and let them out.

Indrajeet, who had done his master’s in zoology from Calcutta University, lived alone in the flat and neighbours said friends would frequently stay the night in his apartment.

Indrajeet had cleared the school service commission examination and got a job at Gobindapur Kalicharan High School in Raichak in 2009.

His father Partha Chakraborty wiped his tears as he stepped into the flat on Tuesday afternoon. “He had many friends and I don’t know if I should suspect any of them,” he said, haltingly.

Chakraborty, who works in the marketing division of a company in Odisha, lodged a murder complaint against “unknown persons” with Jadavpur police station.

Indrajeet’s family lives in Sonarpur. His mother was too distraught to come to the scene of the tragedy on Tuesday. His sister too stayed away.

“On Monday evening, four of his friends — Gautam Manna, Tanay Pal, Debopam and Neel — went to his house. Around 9pm, two others joined them. Neel left the flat for a temple a few metres from the house while Gautam, Tanay and Debopam went into one of the two bedrooms, leaving Indrajeet and two other youths in the other room,” said joint commissioner (crime) Pallab Kanti Ghosh.

At 10.30pm, Debopam rang up Neel and said Indrajeet was not responding to their knocks on the door or phone calls.

The police said Neel came back to the flat and found the main door ajar. Indrajeet was lying on the mattress, his hands and legs tied and mouth and nose sealed with sticking plaster.

“Neel unlatched the door to the other bedroom and let the trio out. According to their statement, one of the two prime accused was a stranger,” Ghosh said.

The friends took Indrajeet to MR Bangur Hospital, where he was declared brought dead. They broke the news to his family, who called the police.

According to the statements made by the four youths, one of whom is a school student, the last time they saw Indrajeet was with the stranger in his room while the other “friend” was waiting outside in the balcony.

At the scene of the crime, the police found a cupboard open and ransacked. A flower vase lay smashed on the floor. Sleuths probing the case said it suggested a scuffle.

“There were no external injuries except cuts around his mouth and the hint of a mark around his neck,” an officer said.