Bangalore, July 31 - Police Friday said they are investigating the death of James Mukalel, a 39-year-old Catholic priest, whose body was found a day earlier on a roadside in Karnataka's Dakshin Kannada district.

'We have registered a case of unnatural death ... as the body did not bear external wounds or signs of attack,' Dakishna Kannada Superintendent of Police A.S. Rao told IANS on telephone from Mangalore.

Mukalel's naked body was lying at a distance from his motorbike on which he was returning to Kutrupady near Belthangady after attending a funeral of another parish priest in the adjacent Charmadi village.

'Though the autopsy has been completed by two government doctors in the presence of two forensic experts, we are waiting for the report to ascertain whether the cause of death is natural or homicide,' Rao said.

The coastal district police have formed a team to investigate the priest's death as there was no pillion-rider with him or witness to give an account of the tragic incident.