Srinagar, Aug. 1 -- The body surfaced before the names did.

Just after dawn on July 30, officers from the Khanyar police station reached the Babademb Canal, beneath the Baba Dawood Khakhi Bridge, and pulled a corpse wrapped in gunny bags out of the water.

Within the hour, investigators had opened a case under Sections 103 and 238 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, and senior officers assembled a Special Investigation Team to work the scene.

Six hours later, they had made two arrests.

Sleuths first identified the dead man as Nazir Ahmad Bhat, son of Ghulam Mohammad Bhat, of Kalantpora in the Hawal neighbourhood of Srinagar.

Then they traced the killing to a rented room in Mughal Mohalla, Rainawari, where a mother and son, Haleema Bano an...