A 32-year-old woman employee of a Bangalore call centre was found murdered on a national highway near Sakleshpur in Karnataka's Hassan district on Wednesday, a senior police official said.

The body of Tanya Banerjee was abandoned on the Bangalore-Mangalore National Highway near Sakleshpur, Hassan district, Superintendent of Police P H Rane told PTI.

The body, which showed 32 stab wounds, was lying in the middle of the road. It was found by a police officer walking by  at 5 am on Wednesday morning. She was identified by documents found with her. Sources say it may be possible that the body was abandoned in the middle of a road to make the death seem like an accident.

Banerjee, who was originally from West Bengal, was working with Aviva [Get Quote] Customer Operation Services. It has been learnt that she did not take the company vehicle on Tuesday night.

A probe team has been formed and Bangalore police informed about the recovery of the body, Rane said.

This is the second incident involving the murder of a call centre employee; last December, Pratibha Murthy was found allegedly raped and killed by her vehicle driver in Bangalore.

The incident had raised concerns about the safety of women working in call centres, prompting the police and companies to ensure implementation of better safeguards.