The body of a 19-year-old college student who went missing on February 14 was found in a canal in Howrah’s Uluberia, around 43km from his home, on Tuesday.
Hardik Das, a resident of Senhati Colony in southwest Kolkata’s Behala and a first-year student at Jnan Chandra Ghosh Polytechnic in Mominpore, had last left home on February 14 saying he was going to college.
His family lodged a missing diary with Behala police station. The police later started a kidnapping case after the family expressed the apprehension that the teenager had been abducted.
Officers involved in the investigation tracked the location of the cell phone Hardik was using to Dum Dum, after which the student’s phone was switched off.
Hardik’s photographs were circulated across all police stations and railway stations, officers said.
On Tuesday night, Behala police station received information about a body that was found in a canal in Hirapur Kantakhali, near a brick kiln named Pratima in Uluberia in Howrah district.
“The description and photograph of the body found in Uluberia apparently matched the details of the missing student. His family was informed,” said an officer of Behala police station.
Hardik’s father Himadri Das went to Uluberia Sub-divisional Hospital on Tuesday night to check whether the body found in the canal was his son’s.
“After the father identified the body, the post-mortem and other formalities were carried out. According to the autopsy surgeon, there were no external injury marks on the decomposed body,” said the deputy commissioner of police, south-west, Saumya Roy.
The body was handed to his family for the last rites. It was cremated at the Keoratala crematorium on Wednesday.
The police said they had not received any specific complaint from the family till Wednesday evening.
“We have talked to many of Hardik’s friends. All of them said he was extremely introvert and would barely share anything with friends. None of them knew about his thoughts and plans. We have not come across anything that suggests foul play,” an officer of Behala police station said.
In January, a college student who had joined an outing with friends had fallen into the river Hooghly while he was reportedly taking a selfie. The body could be recovered from the river after 10 days.