Railway staff during a routine check on Sunday evening recovered an unidentified woman’s dismembered body stuffed in an abandoned bag and a box inside the S1 coach of a train which runs from Chhapra via Gorakhpur to Gomti Nagar here, police said.
According to the Government Railway Police (GRP), railway staff first spotted a suspicious box and a bag lying unattended inside the coach. The matter was immediately reported to the station authorities, following which teams from the Railway Protection Force (RPF) and GRP rushed to the scene.
“In coach number 217570 NER S-1 of train number 15114 Gomti Nagar Express, a bag and a box were found abandoned. On checking the luggage, the body of an unidentified woman was recovered,” the GRP said in its official press statement issued by the media cell in Lucknow.
As police opened them, they found severed body parts of the woman estimated to be between 25 and 35 years old. Investigators said the torso was packed inside the box and wrapped in polyethylene, while the severed arms and legs were found separately inside the bag. The victim’s head was missing, making identification difficult.
“Senior officials from the Charbagh GRP police station, along with a forensic field unit from the Lucknow police commissionerate, inspected the coach and collected forensic evidence from the scene,” said SP (railway), Lucknow, Rohit Mishra, adding that police were treating the matter as a murder case and trying to identify both the victim and the location where the crime might have taken place.
“The body parts of a female victim were recovered from abandoned luggage. Since the head is missing, identification has become challenging, but multiple teams are working on it,” Mishra added. He said investigators were examining CCTV footage from railway stations along the route and checking passenger reservation details to identify as to who carried the luggage onto the train.
Police said extensive efforts were being made through various channels to identify the deceased woman. After completing the legal procedure, the body parts were sent for a post-mortem examination.
An FIR was being registered at the Charbagh GRP police station and three dedicated teams had been formed to crack the case. “Other legal proceedings are being carried out as per rules,” the GRP said in its statement.
The horrifying recovery triggered panic among passengers and railway staff, with investigators continuing searches for the missing head and other possible clues linked to the murder.
