West Bengal couple found dead in Chennai lodge

The couple who arrived in Chennai on September 3 checked into the lodge and had not come out of the room since Sunday. Of the two corpses, the girl's cadaver was in a highly decomposed state suggesting that she might have died at least three days ago.

Chennai: City Police on Wednesday recovered the bodies of a couple from West Bengal from White House, a boarding lodge, on Triplicane Highway. Police said the deceased have been identified as Prasenjit Ghosh, (23), and Arpita Pal, (20). They booked a room in the lodge on Saturday.

Police said the incident came to light after Siva, a maid at the lodge, felt foul smell emanating from the room the couple was staying. He alerted the lodge owner whose repeated knocks did not elicit any answer. The cops were called in and they broke into the room only to find both dead. The girl's body was in a highly decomposed state.

"The girl's body was in a decomposed state. It appears that the girl must have died at least a couple of days before and the man must have been staying in with her corpse for sometime. We have sent the bodies to Omandurar Government Hospital for post-mortem," police said.

"The door was bolted from the inside and there was no forced entry. It is still unclear whether they had died by suicide or have been killed. Post-mortem reports will shed light on the cause of death," said a senior police official who is privy to the investigation.