MANGALORE, India (CNS) -- A Catholic priest was found murdered July 30 in a remote area near Mangalore in southern India.

The naked body of Father James Mukalel, 39, was discovered on a roadside in the morning by passers-by, reported the Asian church new agency UCA News. The priest worked in the Belthangady Diocese, a Syro-Malabar diocese, which has its headquarters near Mangalore in Karnataka state.

Father Thomas Kannankal, a diocesan social work director, said the deceased priest was returning to his parish after attending the funeral of a former parishioner in the Thottathady parish July 29.

Father Mukalel was a priest of the Tellicherry Archdiocese in the neighboring state of Kerala, but opted to work in Belthangady, serving in the Kutrapady parish at the time of his death.

Father Kannankal said that after attending the funeral, Father Mukalel visited several families, had dinner in a convent and was returning to his base about 9 p.m.

Some parishioners found the body on the roadside about 7 a.m. the next day and informed diocesan officials. Police are investigating.

Father Kannankal claimed the priest's death is "a clear (case of) murder as his body was found far from his motorbike."

"The body did not bear wounds except (for) signs of suffocation," he added.

The Belthangady Diocese has reported incidents of violence against Christians in the last year and police are investigating them, the priest said.

The area is far from the eastern Indian state of Orissa, where attacks on Christians by Hindu nationalists occurred in August 2008.

Copyright © 2009 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops