The Ghaziabad Police on Monday found the body of a law student, who was missing for nearly a week, buried in the basement of his former landlord’s house in the city’s Sahibabad area, The Indian Express reported.

The victim was identified as 27-year-old Pankaj Kumar Singh. He had rented Munna Yadav’s first floor residence in Sahibabad’s Girdhar Enclave for a short period last month. He moved out early October and was reported missing on October 9.

“We started investigating the area where he was last spotted,” Ghaziabad City Police Superintendent Maneesh Mishra told the newspaper. “We found that his previous landlord and his family had left home the day after the complaint was filed, which seemed suspicious. We scanned the house and found fresh plaster in the basement. We dug it up and Singh’s body was inside.”

The police said they were waiting for the postmortem examination report. “No wounds are present to indicate a gunshot or stabbing,” Mishra said. “It appears there must have been a personal reason behind the murder. We are looking for the landlord.”

Yadav, his wife and four children lived on the second floor of the building while Singh had moved into the first floor for 15 days.

“He would teach Munna’s children, and after some time, Munna insisted that he stay with them on the same floor, to which he objected,” Singh’s brother Manish said. “Perhaps an argument took place and he shifted to another place.” Singh also ran a cyber cafe in the colony, the police said.

After Singh’s parents filed a missing persons complaint, the landlord reportedly approached a tenant in the building and inquired about Pankaj Singh. “I told them everyone was worried since he was missing,” the tenant said. “They didn’t say anything; the next morning, the entire family left. Munna claimed he had some work in his hometown in Bihar and that they had to rush.”

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