A 40-year-old woman's semi-naked body with partially ruptured head has been found on the Delhi-Varanasi national highway here, police said on Thursday.

According to the police, the body was spotted on Wednesday morning by a man, who alerted them and also reported that stray dogs had been nibbling at it.

An investigation has been initiated in the matter, they said, adding that based on the circumstances in which the body was found, there is a possibility the victim was raped and murdered before her body was dumped on the highway.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (South) Ravindra Kumar said it's also possible that the victim died in a road accident.

Apart from the local police, forensic experts also reached the spot and collected eight teeth and other bone fragments for analysis, he said.

"We reviewed footage from 104 CCTV cameras in the vicinity and made a breakthrough after identifying the woman in three videos. She was seen walking alone along service lanes and highways," DCP Kumar said. Footage from CCTV cameras at a nearby hospital showed a woman of similar build crossing the service lane towards the highway just hours before the body was found. The woman in the video was wearing the same trousers as those found on the body, the police.

No CCTV cameras are installed at the location where the body was discovered, they said.

The police said that further surveillance footage led the police to the woman's residence in Kanpur's Govind Nagar area, about 4 km from where the body was found.

The victim's husband told the police that his wife was suffering from chronic cervical pain and had been unable to sleep for several nights, the DCP said.

"She had gone out alone while he fell asleep in the early hours and might have been killed in a road accident. The body, which was kept in the freezer at the mortuary, has been sent for postmortem to confirm the cause of death," he added. Additional Commissioner of Police (law and order) Harish Chander said a panel of three doctors is supervising the autopsy and the entire proceeding is being videographed.

Chander also clarified that initial rumours suggesting the woman was decapitated were incorrect. The head had been severely ruptured and some flesh was found further down the road from where the body was found, he added.

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