The mystery shroud over the death of a doctor began to lift on Monday, with police saying Sushil Pal was “possibly murdered”.

The post-mortem carried out at Calcutta Medical College and Hospital 48 hours after his mysterious death suggests that the doctor from Bright Street did not commit suicide.

The strong suspicion now is that he was murdered and his body dumped in a canal.

Pal, a doctor attached to the Serampore Walsh Hospital, left home on Friday around 8 am. While Saha had told his wife that he was heading for the hospital, the authorities claimed he had not turned up.

On Saturday morning, almost 24 hours after he had left home, the gynaecologist’s body was spotted close to the Saraswati canal at Sankrail, in Howrah, some 40 km from his south Calcutta residence.

Taking the cue from the post-mortem’s preliminary findings, police said Pal’s was a planned murder.

“There were a number of injury marks on the victim’s body,” said a police officer, adding: “The wounds should have been spotted by the Sankrail police, who examined the body on Saturday.”

Pal’s watch, earlier declared missing by the Sankrail police, was discovered by the hospital morgue staff on Monday.

The wounds suggested that the assassins had punched and kicked the doctor or beaten him with a blunt weapon.

“The body (of Pal, who was a good swimmer) does not seem to have floated to the canal from the Hooghly during high tide. Pal’s body was probably thrown into the canal, off the concrete bridge under which it was found,” police said.

Moloy Patra, secretary of the Indian Medical Association, Bengal branch, on Monday demanded a “high-level probe” into the murder of Pal.

“We have conducted an independent inquiry and have reason to believe that Pal’s murder was deliberate,” pointed out Patra.

Pal’s family will meet deputy inspector-general (CID) D.P. Tarania on Tuesday and request him to engage the agency to investigate the case.