The body of a 35-year-old man was found on Monday in the freezer of a shop in the Howrah wholesale fish market where he worked, leading investigators to arrest one of his friends on the murder charge.

Till late on Tuesday, police were not certain whether Surendra Rai alone had murdered Choton Rai. Investigators suspect the the murder was the fallout of an old feud between the two over property at their ancestral village in Bihar. The freezer where Choton’s body was found would be used to store fish sourced from Andhra Pradesh and Odisha.

“Choton Rai was probably murdered on Sunday. The assassin had kept the body in the freezer and probably planned to dispose of it later,” said a senior police officer of the Howrah police commissionerate. “We have sent the freezer for a forensic examination.” Officers said after a preliminary investigation that Surendra had joined Choton to work at shop number 31 in the wholesale fish market in Howrah around three years back. “The two were from the same village in Bihar and they were locked in a tussle over a property there,” the officer said.

Satindra Singh, the owner of the shop, told police that he was not aware of the feud. “The owner told us that he had cleaned the freezer last Saturday and didn’t spot the body,” an officer of Golabari police station said. Investigators said that hours after the murder, Surendra confessed to the crime while talking to a friend and repented his act.

That man apparently rushed to the shop-owner, who in turn alerted the police. A team of officers turned up at the shop and found the body in the freezer. “It appears the victim was hit on his head with a blunt object,” the officer said.

The police suspect Surendra must have had a few others to help him place the body inside the freezer.

“They have not been identified yet. Surendra said during interrogation that he had picked a fight with Choton and hit him on the head several times in a fit of rage. He decided to keep the body inside the freezer and dispose of it later,” the officer said.