Bhubaneswar, Sept. 18: Saheed Nagar police have detained three persons from Jharkhand for allegedly being involved in the murder of a 72-year-old woman at Acharya Vihar last Thursday.

The 75-year-old husband of the deceased suffered serious injuries in the attack and is now being treated at a private hospital.

A police officer said they were going the right way following the detention of these people. “However it will take some time to confirm their actual involvement unless we get enough evidence or they confess to the crime. We are interrogating them,” said the officer.

Kunja Bihari Panigrahi and his wife Jyotsnadevi were found at their second floor home of the Acharya Vihar building on Friday morning. While Jyotsnadevi was found dead, Kunjabihari was critically injured and was admitted to the intensive care unit of a hospital.

Officials said three persons from Jharkhand who worked with a private company in the city had approached Jyotsnadevi around 15 days ago for a rented accommodation in her three-storey building. The deceased had rented a major part of their building to around 100 students, most of them preparing for competitive examinations. The couple stayed in a corner room on the second floor of the building.

Sources said these youths had paid some money to the woman as security deposit. But dissatisfied with the congested rooms and available facilities there, they wanted to move out. When they approached the landlady, she did not return their money and turned them away. During inquiry, officials found that the woman never returned the security money and she made that very clear to all the boarders staying there.

“When we came to know that these youths and the woman had an argument a few days ago, we detained them. We suspect that they might have killed the woman for money and then attacked her husband when he came to her sescue,” said the officer.

Abhijit, one of the boarders staying in that building, said the landlady made it clear to whoever came to stay there that they would not get back the security deposit.

“She was very strict about money matters,” said the youth from western Odisha.

, who is preparing for Combined Defence Services examination here.

Inspector in charge of Saheed Nagar police station K.P. Mishra said they would not divulge any information on the detainees because the investigation was on and it could hamper the probe.

“We are questioning many people and hope to arrest the accused very soon,” said Mishra.

The family members of Kunjabihari said that his condition was still critical.

Some of the students staying in the building left for their native places in western Odisha for Nuakhai festival after staying for three days under a virtual house arrest because the police had asked them not the leave the area until the investigation was over.