The decomposed body of a 72-year-old man was found in his house in Dum Dum’s Nagerbazar on Wednesday night.
Police said the house was locked from the outside and his new BMW 6-series car was missing from his parking.
Kalyan Bhattacharya, the elderly man who was found dead, lived alone and the police said they suspect he was murdered.
The BMW car was registered in the name of the victim in December last year. A BMW 6-series car is priced upwards of Rs 72 lakh and it goes up depending on the configurations.
A man who had last visited the house to drive the vehicle last Sunday is a suspect in the case, a senior police officer said.
Police said Rajrupa Dasgupta, a resident of Salt Lake, reported to Nagerbazar
police station on Wednesday evening that Bhattacharya, her maternal uncle and resident of 31 Nayapatty Road, was missing.
“We received information that the main door of his house was locked from outside when his niece went to meet him. On visiting the spot, our officers detected a foul smell emanating from inside the house. The main door was broken in the presence of witnesses. The man’s body was found lying in a room,” said an officer of the Barrackpore police commissionerate.
The police said they came to know later that Bhattacharya’s BMW was missing from the garage.
“The deceased was unmarried and lived alone in the house. Based on the complaint of his niece, a case under IPC sections on murder and theft has been started at Nagerbazar police station against an unknown person,” an officer said.
During the investigation, the police said they came across witnesses who said a man had come to meet Bhattacharya on Sunday evening to drive his car.
“That was the last time the victim was seen alive. The man who apparently went to
drive the car is a suspect in this case. We are trying to ascertain his identity through CCTV footage and other technical surveillance,” said the officer.
The house is located in a residential neighbourhood that has multiple standalone houses and apartment blocks.
The police said no traffic violation cases are pending against the BMW car that is missing.
“We are examining the extended family of the deceased to know more about him and his habits and acquaintances,” a senior police officer said.
Barrackpore police commissioner Aloke Rajoria visited the spot on Thursday and said the investigation was in its “preliminary stages”.
“The cause of the death can be determined only after the post-mortem report arrives. No one has been arrested till now,” Rajoria said on Thursday evening.