Ghatal, April 14: Police have begun a murder case against Nikhilendu Mahapatra, the doctor in whose house a coll-ege student was found dead yesterday.

“We started the murder case on the basis of the complaint lodged by Dolonchampa Guchhait’s father and after spotting strangulation marks on her neck,” West Midnapore superintendent of police R. Rajsekharan said.

The math honours student who wanted to study medicine used to go to Mahapatra, 52, for tuition. She did not return home on Thursday. The doctor went to his chamber as usual yesterday morning. He called up the girl’s father Panchanan, a schoolteacher, a few hours later to say she had committed suicide.

The police are not sure about whether Dolonchampa, 20, had been raped. “We have to wait for the post-mortem report,” Rajsekharan said.

The Ghatal subdivisional court, 120 km from Calcutta, remanded the doctor in four days’ police custody.

His colleague at the subdivisional hospital, anaesthetist B.N. Banerjee, who had been held for allegedly destroying evidence, was released after interrogation. “Prima facie, he was not involved in the crime,” the police said.

Additional superintendent Tamal Bose said a piece of paper claiming that the doctor has “harmed many” was found near the body. It would be sent for tests to confirm if Dolonchampa wrote it.

Sister Semanti said Dolonchampa was close to the doctor. “We rebuked her for her relations with the married man a few days ago. She was possibly pressing him for marriage,” Semanti said.