Mystery shrouds the death of a 25-year-old techie, hailing from Kozhikode, who was suffocated to death with his both hands and legs tied. The body was found in a parked car this morning, in Mahadevapura area.

Police said the as yet unidentified assailants killed Sriraj in his brand new black Volkswagen Polo bearing registration number KA 53 Z 6185. “The assailants initially gagged the deceased by taping his mouth with cellophane tape. They used the same tape to immobile him as well. They then covered his face with a polythene cover and suffocated him to death,” police said.

Sriraj is the son of Subramani, and the parents currently live in Kozhikode. He was working for Hewlett Packard software company on ITPL Road for the past six months. Before this, he was employed with IBM here for four years. He was a resident of AECS Layout in Mahadevpura. There, he was living with one of his friends, Vivek, in a rented house. He moved into the house six months back, police said.

In the morning, some passers by grew suspicious after noticing the car having been parked there for a long time. They went closer to it, and noticed the youth lying in the rear seat of the car, tied up, and his head covered with the polythene bag. They informed the police who, along with the forensic science experts and the dogs squad, rushed to the spot.

Said Sriraj’s cousin, Shayne, a private firm employee, “On Monday evening, at around 7:30, Sriraj came to our house for dinner. He stayed with us for a few hours and and left for his place on his Yamaha bike shortly after midnight. After that, we have no idea as to what had happened.”

Room-mate Vivek had this to say, “Sriraj and I were awake till 1: 30 am. Later, I went to bed and woke up around 10:30 am but could not find him in the house. It was only when a few passers by informed me that I got to know about the incident.”

According to the police sources, Sriraj was friendly with a girl from Bengaluru for the past two months. He had proposed her for marriage over the phone, but never met her before. The police refused to reveal the details of the girl, for fear it would hamper the investigation.

The police are interrogating the girl to ascertain if she had any role in the murder or if someone known to her did it. The police are also checking the call details of his mobile phone, and are also speaking to his friends and colleagues at office.

The Mahadevpura police, who registered a case under section 302 IPC, said, “The valuables of the deceased were intact, so it could not be a murder for gain.”

The body of the deceased was shifted to Bowring Hospital for autopsy, which will be conducted only after the family members of the deceased arrived in the city.

Meanwhile, in Kozhikode, the parents of Sriraj have not been informed of the death of their son, the neighbours said, as both were heart patients. The parents stay at their house named Indeevaram, near the Deshodharini library at Malapparamabu in Kozhikode.

The people staying in the locality do not have much information about the close relatives of the family, as the couple have moved into the area only recently. According to available information, a brother of the deceased is working at Dhanalaxmi Bank in Mumbai.