While being wheeled into the operation theatre, Nar Bahadur, who survived the attack, reportedly scribbled on a piece of paper: ``Maniram's nephew Vishnu Prasad hit me on the head with a hammer.'' Maniram, a security guard with the University, was one of the two who were found dead in their three-room flat. The other body, of library assistant Prem Bahadur, was found in a trunk as investigators were rummaging the flat, four hours after Maniram's body was discovered.

The police suspect that more than one person was involved in the brutal attack. Sukhdev and Nar Bahadur were rushed to hospital in a critical state.

The police recovered Maniram's body around 11 am. Prem Bahadur's body was discovered inside a trunk four hours later.

On the basis of Nar Bahadur's note, a police team left late this evening for an unstated destination on the Indo-Nepal border to trace 19-year-old Vishnu Prasad.

Maniram's body was found naked. The police reckon he may have been sodomised. The police have not recovered any money from the house, though the victims had received their salaries yesterday.

The door to the flat was locked from the outside when the police arrived this morning. The police recovered some partially burnt letters from the house.

Prem Bahadur's body was in a state of decomposition, leading investigators to believe that he may have been killed much earlier than Maniram. Prem had not reported for work for the last two days. All the victims are related to each other and were living in the flat for several months.

The police's prime suspect Vishnu Prassad had married a few months ago and was unemployed. His parents are separated and live in Nepal. While his father lives with his second wife, Vishnu's mother lives alone in a small Nepali village.

According to Ram Prasad, an uncle of Vishnu, the teenager was emotionally disturbed over his father's second marriage. He was looking for a job and had requested Maniram to help him find a job in Delhi University.

The police believe that the letters found in the flat could provide clues to the gory incident.