Balasore, Dec. 31: A mutilated body of a 35-year-old woman was found from a canal here yesterday.

Police said the victim was killed and then burnt. Later, the killers packed the victim’s body in a sack and threw it into the canal.

The body was reduced almost to a skeleton when a fisherman found the sack while fishing in the coast canal.

The deceased, Satyabhama Behera of Bolonga village, was married to Purnachandra Mallick, 42, of Sartha village for about 12 years ago.

Later, Purnachandra, the father of three children, developed an extra-marital relationship with one Kabita Behera, 32, of neighbouring Bahabalpur. When Satyabhama protested, Purnachandra tortured her, said the victim’s family members.

On December 15, Purnachandra informed the deceased’s father that Satyabhama had been missing.

The woman’s mother, Hemlata Behera, suspected foul play and lodged a police complaint alleging her son-in-law and Kabita of torturing her daughter.

After the Beheras identified Satyabhama’s body, the district police registered a case against the accused for murder, suppressing facts and destroying evidence.

The police then arrested both of them for dowry torture and produced them before court. Both of them are still lodged in jail.

Hemlata alleged that the duo had killed her daughter to eliminate her from their life.

The police yesterday had sent the body’s remains for further forensic tests in Cuttack.

Sub-divisional police officer Gobinda Chandra Sethi said: “The victim was killed, then burnt and subsequently thrown into the canal. Her body has been identified. A case has been registered against the accused persons under murder charge.”