On October 8, the officials at Muzaffarpur railway station in Bihar unloaded two parcels from the Pawan Express that originates from Kurla. As no one came to claim the parcels and the smell started emanating from them, the railway officials became suspicious and opened the parcels, and found inside three bodies — of a 40-year-old man, 35-year-old woman and a four-month-old infant.

“We have tried reaching the tempo drivers/owners through their associations to help us if they have any lead. The identity of the tempo owner/driver will be kept secret and he would also be rewarded,” said Vasant Koregaonkar, DCP, Central Railway (CR).

“Since the identities of the dead are yet to be established, we are trying hard to crack the case,” he added.

The bodies bore no marks of the external injuries, but the police have registered a case of murder. “We are waiting for the post-mortem report. We have also sent a team to Bihar to look into this matter,” Koregaonkar said.

“These parcels classified as ‘domestic items’ were booked by one Sunil Jha on October 6 at the Kurla Terminus. The owner of the parcel was also travelling in the same train and the parcels were to be unloaded at the Muzaffarpur railway station,” said Sriniwas Mudgerikar, chief spokesperson of the CR. The name and address, as per the railway records, turned out to be bogus, the police said.

On how these parcels were loaded without being checked, Mudgerikar said: “We do conduct random checks in case of parcels. But it is practically not possible to check each of them. We also have sniffer dogs who help us in the random checking.”