Missing man Shubham Bansode, 25, found dead in locked car near Nehru Stadium in Pune

A young man who had been missing for days was found dead inside a parked car opposite Nehru Stadium in Pune's busy Sarasbaug area, near the Jain temple at Dadachi Wadi. He has been identified as Shubham Bansode, 25, who had disappeared from the Kalepadal area. The discovery alarmed residents of the crowded locality in the heart of the city.

The four-wheeler had stood unattended by the roadside in front of the stadium for two to three days. Its windows carried dark film, so nothing inside could be seen from outside, and it was locked from within. Early one morning a strong stench began to come from it. Residents grew suspicious, and one person from the Jain temple called the police control room. Police from Khadak station reached the spot, opened the door and found the body lying on the seat, badly bloated and decomposed. Personnel from Swargate police station were also reported at the scene.

The vehicle is a Maruti car with registration MH12 SF 5471, and one report describes it as an Alto. The body was sent to Sassoon Hospital for a post-mortem.

Bansode's family says he left home on Monday in a car borrowed from a friend, after which his phone was switched off. The family then filed a missing person complaint. The friend told police that Bansode had asked for the car on Monday night without saying where he was going, and that he could not reach him afterwards. Police called the friend on the morning the body was found to tell him what had happened.

Early on, police had given a different picture. They said the body was that of a man aged between 25 and 30, who appeared to be from Loni Kalbhor, and that his brother was on the way to confirm the identity. A police official said: "The body may be one or two days old. His brother is coming, and if he confirms the identification after seeing the body, we will confirm the name too. For now, this is all the preliminary information." Another account put the death at about three days earlier. The estimates of how long the body had been in the car therefore differ.

One early report said police suspected murder and that marks of assault had been seen on the body. Later accounts say police have not stated any cause of death. Whether it was suicide or foul play will be known only after the post-mortem report, police said.

Several questions remain open. Police do not yet know who drove the car to the spot and parked it, or whether any conspiracy lies behind it. Khadak police are going through CCTV footage from the surrounding area to answer these questions. Officers say they are examining several angles and that the investigation is continuing.