A rotting smell engulfed a stretch near Hyderabad's Botanical Garden Road in Kondapur on Tuesday, as a large number of people gathered in one corner of the road.
There was constant commotion as policemen kept asking the public to back away from a crime scene, as a forensic team was at work, and officials were looking for additional clues.
At the centre of it all, was the body of a woman, chopped into several pieces and dumped into two sacks. While a smaller sack had her hands and legs, the larger sack had her head and body.
The residents of Sri Ram Nagar in Kondapur who woke up to a shock on Tuesday, said that they had never seen such a case before.
The body was found at around 7.30am by two workers of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC), Chennaiah and Narasimha, as they did their morning rounds to collect garbage.
"We start early in the morning every day, and as we were going in a tractor, we found two sacks with blood oozing out. Many slaughterhouses in the area earlier used to dump their chicken and pig waste like this in the open, so I assumed that it was one such sack," Chennaiah told TNM.
"He was struggling to open the bigger sack, so I opened the smaller sack. As soon as I saw the body parts, I stopped and informed my immediate supervisor," Narasimha said.
(Chennaiah and Narasimha)
The GHMC officials at the spot informed their higher authorities, following which the police were called. The police arrived at the spot by 8 am.
The gruesome murder has left the area in a state of shock, as it is situated close to the IT Corridor, where several Multi-National Corporations (MNCs) are located.
"It is shocking that something like this happened so close to my place. Locals know about the meat dumping problem, and may have assumed that the sack was just the same," says a techie from Cognizant, who had passed by the area at 6am in the morning.
"There are mostly families and some techies living in this area, but we have never seen such an incident. It’s shocking. I pass by the spot every single day, many times," says Gopal, another local resident.
The area also attracts several joggers and cyclists.
"I go for a jog everyday in the morning, but I overslept today. I fear to think that I may have found the body, as I pass the spot at around 6am every day," says Ramesh.
(A sniffer dog at the spot)
Decomposed body
Police officials at the spot said that the state of the body parts and the stench, suggested that the woman had died two or three days ago, and her body was dumped in the late hours of Monday or the early hours of Tuesday.
"The sack was carried in a vehicle and dumped here when it was dark. There are no other blood trails that we can follow," a forensic official at the spot told TNM.
Several locals were also seen at the spot, covering their noses, and trying to get a glimpse of the body.
A team of officials also collected forensic evidence from the spot, before the body parts were bound in a larger sack and transported to the Osmania General Hospital for an autopsy.
Gachibowli Inspector M Gangadhar, who reached the spot, said, "We were informed about a body and rushed to the spot. Upon opening the sacks, we realised that it was a woman. Forensic evidence has been collected."
"We will examine CCTV footage of nearby outlets and proceed to register a case. The identity of the woman has not been established yet, but we should get more clues after the post-mortem," he added.
The police are also looking through missing complaints filed across Hyderabad, to identify the woman.
“We will have a better idea of the entire incident in a day of two,” the police official said.