The second case, however, remains under scrutiny because the victim’s body was mutilated to such an extent that it has been difficult to determine whether a leg was missing.

Police are now consulting doctors who conducted the post-mortem in the Lalitpur case and have sought blood sample analysis to determine whether the recovered limb could belong to the deceased. If the medical opinion and blood examination suggest a possible match, the GRP will proceed with DNA testing for confirmation, a police officer said.

At the same time, investigators are not relying solely on the Lalitpur lead. The GRP has alerted railway police stations along the Amritsar-Mumbai route to report any railway accident or suicide cases that occurred between July 15 and July 17, as well as during the preceding two weeks. The Amritsar-CSMT Express left Amritsar on the morning of July 15 and reached Mumbai at around 12.15 am on July 17.

Investigators have also questioned the train’s motorman, who said he did not witness anyone being struck during the journey. “As per railway protocol, if a train runs over a person or a suicide occurs, the motorman is required to immediately alert the railway control room and report the incident,” a senior GRP officer said.

The incident came to light on the morning of July 17 when cleaning staff noticed an amputated leg below the knee while washing the rake at the CSMT coaching yard. During an undergear inspection, railway staff found the severed limb lodged near the wheel assembly beneath the trolley of the M2 coach of Train No. 11058 (Amritsar-CSMT Express). The train was undergoing scheduled maintenance between 6 am and 2 pm before its next journey.

Officers from the CSMT GRP rushed to the spot, conducted a panchnama and sent the body part to St George’s Government Hospital for forensic examination. Railway police officers said such cases are rare, although not unprecedented. Last year, a severed human hand was recovered from a train and, after an extensive investigation, the deceased was eventually identified.

An officer associated with the current investigation said the force of impact in railway accidents can throw body parts several metres away or cause them to become lodged in the undercarriage of a moving train.

Recalling an incident from 2006 while posted in Solapur, the officer said a man’s amputated leg had become stuck in a train’s chassis and was carried nearly two kilometres from the accident site before being recovered. “Initially, one leg was missing during the panchnama. We searched along the tracks and eventually found it about two kilometres away,” the officer said.