Police identified the deceased as Abudahir Basha, a car driver from RS Puram. “The assailants stabbed him with a knife, left his body in the drainage along Brooke Bond Road and burnt it,” police said.

The passerby spotted the half-burnt body following a heavy stench and informed the RS Puram police. The partially decomposed body was then sent for a post-mortem at Coimbatore Medical College and Hospital (CMCH).

After investigations, police traced his identity as Abudahir Basha, who went missing on 29 May. Before leaving the house, he had a heated argument with someone over the phone. Police said his wife had left him following a difference of opinion. Special teams of police have launched a search for offenders.