Cuttack, April 22: Police today began probe into the killing of a 35-year-old married woman, whose body was recovered from a house at Arada village last night.

The body of the deceased, Saraswati Mallick alias Minati, was found lying in blood around 7pm yesterday by a group of villagers.

Minati's both hands had been chopped off. It is suspected that she was hacked to death with a sharp weapon as the body carries a deep cut wound around the neck.

The police suspect involvement of her husband, Prashant Mallick, 40, who is absconding, along with his two sons, following the incident.

"The murder could be a fallout of an ongoing family feud," said deputy commissioner of police Sanjeev Arora.

Prashant and Minati had got married some 10 years ago. But, the couple had been staying separately for the past six months over some family feud.

Minati, along with her two kids, used to stay at a rented house at Markatnagar, while Prashant was living at Bishalyakarani Lane.

Sources said Prashant had brought Minati and the children to his native village at Arada around 10am yesterday.

But, he had left home following a quarrel within an hour, neighbours said.

"We had seen Prashant and his family in the morning. But later, we came to know that their door was open and Minati was lying in blood," said local resident Kishore Rout.

The villagers said Minati was looking after her two children by doing a tailoring job, while Prashant had been jobless for the past one year - which was the root cause of the differences between the couple.

The body was sent for autopsy and a forensic test was also conducted at the spot of the crime.