Body in suitcase: Victim was a Bowbazar businessman who went to Digha to lease hotel

MECHEDA: Police on Thursday said the person whose body was found inside an abandoned suitcase in an empty compartment of a Howrah-Mecheda local train has been identified as Bowbazar businessman Hasan Ali (45).
A BB Ganguly street resident, Ali had a substantial stake in a furniture business and had recently invested Rs 15 lakh to get a lease of a Digha hotel.On February 24, he had left for Digha to pay the remaining Rs 6 lakh as per the lease agreement, his family told police.
Unable to contact him, Hasan Ali’s family started contacting the police stations across East Midnapore since Tuesday night. On Wednesday, they were told about the body recovered by the Mecheda GRPS.
According to a Ali’s family member Mir Md Iqbal Hossain, Ali was in touch with four brokers in the Digha-Ramnagar belt who deals with hotel-lease issues. Hossain told police that he suspected the brokers — who knew Hasan was heading to Digha with Rs 6 lakh — had a role in the brutal murder.
Cops said they have already questioned the hotel owner with whom Hasan was working on the lease agreement. The owner confirmed that he had already received Rs 15 lakh in cash and was waiting for the rest of the amount before handing over the property.
He had tried calling Hasan multiple times on Tuesday but could not reach him, he told police. The cops said they were trying to analyse the call record details on Hasan’s phone to understand his whereabouts on the day he was murdered. The owner — whom police did not name — also confirmed that four brokers had mediated in the deal. Hasan is originally from Panskura, but is settled in Kolkata for several years. The four brokers are also being questioned, police said.
The body was found in a local train compartment that reached its terminal destination of East Midnapore’s Mecheda around 10.30pm on Tuesday. After all the passengers got off the train, cleaners entered to clear the compartments. One of them spotted the suitcase wrapped in polythene lying under one of the seats of a general compartment. Finding it very heavy, the cleaners informed the GRP. The train was taken to the car shed with the suitcase in it.
The officers later opened the suitcase and found the body with multiple injury marks. It was sent for post-mortem.