Purnea, March 15: Police today started a murder probe into the death of a man who was found hanging from the roof of his hut at Loot Tola village under Khajanchi Haat police station this morning.

The deceased was identified as Mohammad Khurshid, 27. Acting on his wife Hamida Begum’s statement, the police registered a case of murder under Khajanchi Haat police station and started a probe.

Hamida said: “Khurshid returned home late last night with his friend Raj. Ten minutes later, he went out with Raj saying he was going to meet his mother who stays two houses away from ours. I waited for around an hour before going to sleep. I woke this morning to the shouts of neighbours that a man was hanging in the verandah of my house. When I tried to open the door of my room, I realised that the door was bolted from outside. People gathered outside opened it.” Whenever Khurshid went out at night, he would instruct his wife to bolt the door from inside while he locked it from outside, she said. Hamida said her husband could not have committed suicide but was killed.

In another incident, one Pushpa Devi, 32, was allegedly burnt to death by her husband, Devendra Sharma, at Lakri Pati under Sadar police station in Purnea last evening.