Family members of the girl at Jugsalai police station in Jamshedpur on Wednesday (Animesh Sengupta)

“Prima facie it appears to be a case of suicide as the parents of the girl have recovered a note with ‘sorry mujhe maaf kar dijiye” (sorry forgive me) written on it,” said Nityanand Mahato, officer in-charge (OC) of Jugsalai police station.

“However, we are also probing the other angles. We have seized the mobile of the deceased youth from the spot to get his call detail record. We will also check footage from the CCTV camera installed near Tata Pigment gate to find out the exact nature of the crime. We have recovered three empty cartridges from the spot,” the OC added.

However, both the girl’s and the young man’s families doubted the suicide theory.

“I cannot believe that my son would commit suicide,” said Saroj’s father Dipender Kumar Upadhyay, who owns a submersible pump installation unit. We had dinner together last (Tuesday) night and there was nothing unusual in his behaviour. He left house around his usual time at 3.30am for morning walk, but never returned. Around 6.30am, some local youths informed us about the recovery of a body. It was later identified as my son. Saroj was under no mental pressure. Why would he commit suicide?” the father added.

Simran’s parents also did not buy the suicide angle.

“There was no reason for her to end her life,” said Simran’s father Rakesh Kumar, a railway employee. “We had dinner and all of us went to sleep on Tuesday night. I didn’t even know when she sneaked out of the house. I want a proper probe by the police.”

Jamshedpur city superintendent of police (SP) Subhash Chandra Jatt said the bodies had been sent to MGM Medical College for post-mortem.

“Though it appears to be a case of suicide, we are probing all angles,” the SP said.

The bodies of a young man and a teenaged girl with bullet wounds were found on a patch of land adjacent to Tata Pigments Limited in Jugsalai on Wednesday morning.

Morning walkers spotted the bodies around 5.30am, and eyewitnesses said there was a pistol in the right hand of the girl.

The young man had a bullet injury on his right temple while the girl had a gunshot injury on her left temple.

They were later identified as Saroj Kumar Upadhyay, 20, a BA Part II student of Jamshedpur Cooperative College, and Simran Kumari, 17, a student of Class X at Dayanand Public School in Sakchi.

The young man was a resident of Bagbera Lal Building while the girl used to live at River View Colony near Baroda Ghat in Bagbera.

Their houses are around 2km apart.