A man who ran a construction business near New Market, and was possibly last seen in Calcutta by a friend on Ripon Street on Tuesday evening, was found dead with his throat slit around 250km away in Jharkhand’s Jamtara on Wednesday.

The deceased man’s family said Jamtara police contacted them on Wednesday afternoon on a phone number that was printed on a key-ring the victim, Saif Khan, 37, was carrying.

“Police said they did not find anything on my brother except the key-ring. The key-ring had the phone number of our shop where the police called and informed us about my brother. They sent us a photograph of a body and we identified it as Saif’s,” said elder brother Qais on Thursday.

The family went to Jamtara on Wednesday to claim the body, which was handed over to them after a post-mortem.

According to the family, Saif had left their Rafi Ahmed Kidwai Road home around 6pm on Tuesday. When he did not return home till around 11pm, the family tried to contact him but found his phone switched off.

“We were not too alarmed even when we found his phone switched off because we thought his phone had run out of charge. It was only very late at night that we started worrying. We started calling his friends to inquire,” Qais told The Telegraph.

From one of Saif’s friends, the family learned that he was last seen near Mezban restaurant on Ripon Street around 7.30pm on Tuesday.

“We found my brother’s scooter parked in the same area on Wednesday but no one could say who he had left the spot with,” Qais said.

He said when they went to Jamtara to claim the body, the police told them that Saif’s phone was last active in the Kidderpore area around 9.30pm on Tuesday.

“We went to New Market police station on Wednesday night but were told that since my brother’s body was found in Jharkhand, they (Jamtara police) will investigate the case,” a family member of Saif’s said.

A senior officer of New Market police station said: “There was no missing diary from the family before his body was found in Jharkhand. They informed us only after Jharkhand police contacted them. It is apparent the incident happened in Jharkhand and they have started investigating. We will provide any type of assistance they need from here.”