Howrah: The beheaded and mutilated body of a microfinance bank employee who had been reported missing since Wednesday afternoon was found in a jute bag beside a road in Salap, Howrah, the next morning.

Police said Partha Chakrabarty, 33, had been out collecting loan instalments from customers of the bank. He had last texted a senior colleague to say that he was on his way to meet a set of customers before wrapping up for the day.

The body was identified as that of Partha by his colleagues and two persons with whom he shared a flat above the microfinance bank's branch in Salap. Although the head, hands and the portion below the knees were missing, the victim's clothes helped confirm his identity, the police said.

A bag containing cash amounting to Rs 3.5 lakh that Partha had collected from the company's customers and his motorbike hadn't been traced till late on Thursday.

The gruesomeness of the crime has led the police to suspect that robbery wasn't the only motive. "He was beheaded. Both hands shoulder down were chopped off and the portion below his knees was severed as well. Had the killers wanted to snatch money and the motorbike from Partha, why would they behead him and cut off his limbs after the murder?" an officer at Domjur police station said.

The jute bag containing the body was spotted by a civic police volunteer who noticed blood dripping out from it. The bag was lying near a roadside bush around 20km from the heart of Calcutta.

"The civic police volunteer was going down that stretch of the road at dawn. He raised an alarm and residents of the nearby houses came out. They called the police. Inside the bag, we found the body wrapped in a blue plastic sheet," the officer said.

Partha, who was from Chakdah in Nadia, used to live in the rented apartment above his office with two others.

"He had stepped out to collect monthly deposits from five sets of people who have taken loans from the bank. He collected money from four of them and texted to his senior officer, informing him that he was going to Makardah, a nearby locality, to meet the last set of customers for the day before returning to the bank," the officer said.

Investigators believe that more than one person was involved in Partha's murder.

"We also suspect some of the faces were known to him," the officer said. "We have contacted our counterparts in Nadia to ascertain whether Partha had any rivalry with anyone in the area where his family house is located. Partha's colleagues are also under the scanner," a member of the investigation team said. "We are looking at call details of Partha's mobile phone to identify red flags, if any."

Partha, the son of an LIC agent, had joined the microfinance bank in 2014.

"He was transferred to Howrah a few months ago. He used to visit Chakdah every Saturday evening and leave on Monday morning. We spoke to him for the last time on Monday," Partha's sister Gayatri said.