The Alappuzha Railway Police launched an investigation after cleaning staff discovered severed human body parts, including a right arm and a toe, lodged beneath the S-5 coach of the Alappuzha–Dhanbad Express at the Alappuzha pit-line yard. The train had arrived from Dhanbad the previous evening and was undergoing routine maintenance when the remains were found on an iron bracket under the coach.
Police registered a case of unnatural death and began tracing the train’s route from Jharkhand to Kerala to determine where the incident may have occurred. Authorities are also expected to coordinate with police in other states, checking recent railway accidents, unidentified deaths and missing-person reports to establish the identity of the deceased and how the remains became trapped beneath the train.