The post-mortem report, however, revealed that the death was due to serious head injuries. A murder case was registered.

The police had very little to go on with but for a piece of paper found in the man’s pants pocket. It had four letters scribbled on it – ‘ESEL’. The team from Pelhar police station carried out a quick Internet search and found over 150 contact numbers of establishments that resembled ESEL.

The team began contacting the numbers and found a lead when they contacted Esel Studio in Mumbai’s Mankhurd. When the police visited the studio, they learnt that a Santosh Kumar Yadav, 27, who provided junior artists for outdoor film shoots, had been missing since May 7.

A further probe revealed that Yadav had last spoken to a woman, a junior artist, who was his friend. She told the police that Yadav was last seen with his friends Sunny Sunil Singh and Rahul Sohan Pal, who also worked as agents in the film industry.

Three days later, the police arrested Singh from Thane after which he allegedly admitted to killing Yadav with Pal’s help. As per the police, Yadav secured a big contract to provide junior artists for a film shoot. Angry at not getting this contract, Singh allegedly killed Yadav in a fit of rage and jealousy.

According to the police, Singh and Pal invited Yadav for drinks on May 7 as a treat for bagging the contract, took him to a secluded spot near a bridge in Nalasopara, and allegedly killed him by hitting him with a stone. His body was then dumped into a nearby drain, the police said.

Singh was arrested on May 14 under sections 302 (murder) and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence related to the offence) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

After searching for Pal for a month and conducting electronic surveillance, the police learnt that Pal was in Haryana. A police team went to Haryana and caught him from Jajru village in Faridabad district.