Commissionerate Police recovered the body of a senior official of the Vizag Steel Plant (VSP) near the Hanuman mandir near Sainik School in VSS Nagar area under Saheed Nagar police of Odisha’s capital city early this morning.

The deceased was identified as K Surya Prasad Rao of Vishakhapatnam posted as AGM (Finance) at VSP.

On being informed by locals about the body lying on the road, Saheed Nagar police along with a scientific team, rushed to the spot. The body was later taken to the Capital Hospital for autopsy to ascertain the real cause of his death.

However, the injury marks on Rao’s body point to a possible murder, police said.

Investigating officer  Biswajit Monobodha said an air ticket was found on his person, which reveals the address of the deceased address and the purpose of his visit to Bhubaneswar. “We have registered an U/D case and investigation is on,” he said.

“Rao arrived from Vizag last evening and checked into a hotel here. We have found that he talked to his son back in Vizag at 10.42 pm last night. The incident obviously happened after that. As per our preliminary investigation, we suspect it to be a case of professional rivalry leading to murder,” Bhubaneswar DCP Satyabrata Bhoi said.

This is the second murder case in the city in the first week of the New Year.