From correspondents in Delhi, India, 05:31 PM IST

The body of a 60-year-old retired Indian Oil Corporation official, who was missing for the past three days, was found Friday under mysterious circumstances in his car in a Delhi market area, the police said.

Mahesh Kumar Goyal had left his Mayur Vihar home in east Delhi Tuesday for Gurgaon in his blue Maruti Zen car.

Two days later his family registered a missing complaint at a police station when he failed to return or contact them.

On Friday morning, he was found dead on the backseat of his car in the Sector-4 Dwarka market in southwest Delhi.

The shop owners, who noticed his body, informed the police that took it to the Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital for post-mortem examination.

'Initial investigation suggests that Goyal died at least 24-30 hours ago and the car was parked by some one late Thursday in the market area. There was no injury mark on his body,' said a police officer.

'The car keys were also inside and none of Goyal's belongings were missing. Only after post-mortem will it be clear whether he was murdered or died due to some other reason,' the official added.

(Staff Writer, © IANS)