'Preliminary investigation has not established the death as a murder. As there is no external evidence on the body, doctors say death could not have been caused by attack or injuries due to road mishap,' Rao pointed out.

The young priest was recently posted as reverend father at St. Mary's Church at Kutrupady after a three-year service at Thotthady near Belthangady.

The coastal district witnessed a spate of attacks last year on churches and chapels by Hindu activists protesting alleged forcible conversions by missionaries and priests.

Christians account for around 2.3 percent of the country's billion-plus Hindu majority population.

Father Thomas Kannankal, a diocesan social worker, was quoted in the local media as alleging that the priest's death appeared to be a case of murder as there were signs of suffocation.