Overview

• Neighbors reported a foul odor from a rented rooftop room in Adarsh Colony, leading officers to open a stone-sealed blue drum and find the decomposed body inside.
• Authorities identified the man as Hansraj alias Suraj, a brick-kiln laborer from Shahjahanpur, Uttar Pradesh, who had rented the rooftop space for six weeks.
• A team from the Forensic Science Laboratory is examining the scene and has sent the body for autopsy to establish the cause and timing of death.
• The victim’s wife Sunita alias Lakshmi, their three children and the landlord’s son Jitendra Sharma remain missing and are being treated as persons of interest.
• Investigators have advanced a prima facie theory that the wife and landlord’s son conspired in the killing, recalling similar 2025 cases of bodies hidden in drums.