Simantini Dey, whose body was identified on Wednesday. A Telegraph picture

Simantini Dey, missing since June 24 morning, was dead long before her family started worrying about her and lodged a police complaint at night.

The 23-year-old’s body was found beside the railway tracks near Phuleswar station, in Howrah, around 9.30pm on June 24. Brother Sibasish identified the body on Wednesday evening.

Simantini, who worked in a private finance company, left her Kasundia 1st Bylane home, in Shibpur, for office around 11am. But her colleagues told her family that she had not attended office on June 24.

No one has been arrested, though Simantini’s father Narayan Chandra Dey had lodged an FIR with Shibpur police station on June 25, naming six local youths who he thought might have abducted his daughter.

The night before, he had lodged a complaint with Chatterjeehat police outpost, which functions under Shibpur police station.

“A probe is on. A few persons named in the FIR have been questioned. We are waiting for the post-mortem report,” said Howrah police superintendent Niraj Kumar Singh.

Police sources said Sankar Mandal, a friend of Simantini and one of the accused, had called her around 5.30pm the day she went missing and was found dead. The next day, around 10am, a call went from her number to a youth identified as Mithun Mal, a resident of Deulti in Howrah.

Simantini’s family members alleged that the police did not act on their complaint despite repeated pleas. “We gave crucial clues about the accused to Shibpur police station and Chatterjeehat outpost, but the cops did nothing,” said Sibasish.

The brother also alleged that two days after Simantini went missing, Sankar Mandal told him that his sister had been arrested in East Midnapore. Later, he said Simantini might have gone to Mandarmani, a beach resort near Digha. Sibasish visited Mandarmani on Saturday but failed to trace her.

Jayanta Chakraborty, the officer-in-charge of Uluberia Government Railway Police, said: “The body was found 50 yards from the platform of Phuleswar station. It was lying unclaimed in the police morgue.”

Informed by Shibpur police station, Sibasish went to the morgue on Wednesday evening and identified the body.