The body of a 36-year-old contract labourer was found in a lake here in Maharashtra and police suspect it to be case of murder, an official said on Thursday.
The deceased, identified Chandrakant Laxman Shelar, a resident of Ghansoli area in Navi Mumbai township here, had gone missing and his family members lodged a complaint at Rabale police station on August 27, Vitthalwadi police station's inspector Dhananjay Pundalik Kapre said.
Later, the victim's highly decomposed body was found in a lake at Chinchpada in Kalyan town of Thane district on August 30 and the police then registered an accidental death report, he said.
However, during the postmortem, injury marks were found on the victim's neck, following which the police on Wednesday registered a case against unidentified persons under Indian Penal Code Sections 302 (murder) and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence), the official said.
Efforts were on to nab the culprits and to ascertain the motive behind the killing, he said.
