The woman whose body was found buried under Bidhan Sarani on Saturday was identified as Suparna Sil, 45, a resident of Shyampukur in north Calcutta.

Sil had been missing since last Thursday, police said.

The family is said to have told the police that the woman was mentally challenged and was in the habit of leaving home for several days.

The police said the family had not lodged any missing diary.

“The woman’s family members, residents of Shyampukur’s Raja Kali Krishna Second Lane, contacted us after they saw in news bulletins that a woman’s body was found not far from their house,” said an officer of Burtolla police station.

“They said they did not lodge any missing diary because she was in the habit of leaving home for days together.”

A sister-in-law and two nephews of Sil went to meet the police. Her brother had died earlier, the police have learned.

The decomposed body was found buried under a stretch of Bidhan Sarani, near its crossing with Kashi Bose Lane, on Saturday afternoon after residents of the area complained of a stench.

The police said a team from the Kolkata Municipal Corporation had been digging up the stretch to lay a water pipe. Following the complaint of stench, the team members were asked to dig up the spot where the body was found.

The woman was wearing a t-shirt and had no clothes on in the lower part of the body.

Police officers who went to the spot said the body was found just below the tram tracks, lying almost parallel to the surface of the road.

The body has been kept at the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital for post-mortem.

“We will know the cause of the death after going through the post-mortem report,” said an officer in the detective department of Kolkata Police.