Chopped body parts of a woman were found dumped inside two overhead water tanks in a house and on the terrace of an adjacent building in Arisipalayam in Salem district early on Monday. The police have begun investigating to trace the identity of the murder victim as well as for some missing parts of her body.Police said, Ramesh (62), a resident of Gunabalan Ramasamy Street in Arisipalayam, who works as a temple priest, had left for Kumbakonam and Thanjavur with his family members two days ago. In the wee hours of Monday, the family returned home. When they opened the tap in the house, a foul odour emanated, following which Mr Ramesh went to the terrace and opened two overhead water tanks to check the source of the contamination. He found two gunny bags placed in the water tanks. When he checked the gunny bag, he was shocked to find chopped body parts of a woman inside them and immediately called the Pallapatti police.The police rushed to the spot and retrieved the gunny bags and found that a few body parts were missing. While the police searched the terrace of a neighbouring house, located behind Mr Ramesh’s house, they found another gunny bag in which the remaining body pieces were found. The police sent the three gunny bags to Salem Government Hospital for postmortem. Forensic experts came to the spot and lifted fingerprints. A sniffer dog was brought to the house but it did not catch anyone.The Pallapatti police registered a case and, on suspicion, took three persons, including a college student in the locality for questioning.Police sources said on the deceased’s hand a name, Ganapathi, was tattooed. The age of the deceased might be around 30-40 years. The CCTVs footage in the streets are being verified by the police to identify the accused, sources added. Published - August 31, 2026 07:56 pm IST