Locals found an unconscious Prity Ranjan Chakma, 45, motor vehicle inspector of BRTA, Chittagong, at the city's Battery Gali at around 9:30pm on Thursday.

He was rushed to Chittagong Medical College Hospital (CMCH) where on-duty doctors declared him dead.

Police suspect that muggers killed him while he was going to Colonel Haat on a CNG-run three-wheeler from Bohoddarhat on that night.

Signs of beating and strangulation were found on the body, CMCH sources said.

Prity left City Guest House of Bohoddarhat, where he was staying, for the bus stand at Colonel Hut at around 8:30pm before meeting the tragic end, said the victim's family members.

Prity's wife Tuku Rani Chakma said they planned to visit their two sons studying in Sylhet during the two holidays at the weekend.

Tuku was coming directly from Debashish Nagar in Rangamati where they hailed from and Prity was to meet her at the Sylhet-bound Volvo bus of Green Line at 10:15pm, she said.

"After arriving at GEC intersection from Rangamati at around 8:40pm I contacted Prity over cell phone when he told me to go to the bus counter at Colonel Haat directly," Prity told this correspondent at CMCH emergency ward yesterday morning.

"He told me that he would come to the counter by hiring a CNG-run three-wheeler within half an hour," Tuku said.

"I could not realise that this would be our last conversation. I failed to contact him over phone despite several attempts after reaching the bus counter," she said.

BRTA officials who gathered at the CMCH mortuary yesterday said, Prity lived simply and he never had any enmity or dispute with any of his colleagues.