A homemaker was found dead in her Garia home in Calcutta on Sunday while her eight-year-old son was sleeping in the next room.
Her husband, a teacher at a private institution, is reportedly missing.
Police suspect that the husband killed his wife and escaped.
Preliminary investigation by the police suggests that 41-year-old Enakshi Das was strangulated to death. Her body has been sent for a post-mortem.
An officer said there is an external injury mark on her head.
Her husband, Soumik Das, has been missing since Sunday morning, the police said.
A source said the couple lived in an apartment on Garia Station Road with their son.
Their househelp, Rinku Adhikari, called them on Saturday, but her calls went unanswered.
She came to work on Sunday, but no one responded then either.
“She called the other occupants of the building. As she reached the flat belonging to her employers, she found the main door was unlocked,” said an officer of Narendrapur police station under whose jurisdiction the incident
happened.
According to Rinku, the boy was lying in his room while Enakshi was lying lifeless on her bed in the next room with a white cloth on her mouth, the police said.
“Her husband was nowhere to be found. His phone and the woman’s phone have been seized for forensic examination. The couple’s parents have been informed,” the officer said.
Sources said Das had visited his ancestral home in Budge Budge earlier last week. His parents stay there, the police said.
Investigators said they are collecting CCTV footage from cameras near the building.
“They used to keep to themselves. I have heard that the husband was a teacher in an institution at Anandapur. I heard about this incident only after their domestic help raised an alarm,” said a neighbour.