A 37-year-old homemaker was found dead, blood oozing from her mouth, in her rented apartment at Narendrapur early on Tuesday. Her husband is absconding.

Police suspect after a preliminary probe that Sandhya Banerjee was suffocated with a pillow. A murder case has been started.

“We are trying to track down Ranjit Banerjee, Sandhya’s husband. The post-mortem report will reveal the cause of death,” said Praveen Kumar, the superintendent of police, South 24-Parganas.

An officer of Sonarpur police station said Ranjit, an agent of a consumer goods company, rented the flat in February 2007.

“The couple was childless and hardly interacted with the neighbours. They were seldom seen together. Ranjit, who seemed quite well-off, used to return home late at night,” said Arindam Sen, a resident of the housing estate.

Around 1.30am on Tuesday, Ranjit woke up some of his neighbours and told them that his wife had not opened the door even after repeated knocks.

He managed to break open the door and claimed to have found Sandhya lying on the floor, blood oozing from her mouth.

“He said he had gone to the police station and reported the matter to the officers. The cops, he added, would come any moment,” said a neighbour, who did not want to be identified.

But the police did not arrive. Ranjit left the apartment around 3am, telling his neighbours that he was going to the police station again to ask the cops to come soon.

But the neighbours got suspicious and one of them called up the police station.

A cop team soon came and found the almirah in the apartment open. “The jewellery boxes in it were all empty. Ranjit had probably taken away the ornaments,” said an investigating officer.

Officers at the police station are not sure whether Ranjit had actually gone there on Monday night.

“Even if he had come, he did not lodge any complaint. We are asking our men whether he had spoken to any of them. He might have lied about his visit to the police station,” said an officer.