A tuft of hair, allegedly cut from the head of a young woman from Sodepur during torture, was found in a heap of garbage on a plot adjacent to Sweta Khan’s house in Howrah’s Domjur on Tuesday.

Police said forensic experts would examine the hair and match it with that of the woman from Sodepur.

“A sample will be collected from the woman for DNA matching. If the hair matches hers, it will help establish her allegations,” a senior officer of Howrah Police Commissionerate said.

The 23-year-old woman has alleged Sweta and her son Aryan would chop off clumps of her while torturing her.

The police found the hair four days after the woman’s parents lodged a complaint with Khardah police station in North 24-Parganas, alleging Aryan and Sweta had assaulted their daughter. The young woman suffered an arm fracture and injuries to her teeth, they said.

The woman, admitted to the College of Medicine and Sagore Dutta Hospital in Kamarhati, said she was beaten with iron rods, a chopper and a grinding stone. Doctors treating her said she was in trauma and would take time to recover.

The cops have been looking for Aryan and Sweta since Saturday.

On Tuesday, a team of investigators raided Sweta’s sister’s house at Munshidanga in Howrah’s Bankra, around 9km from Sweta’s home in Domjur, where the young woman was allegedly held captive since January.

“Sweta often visited her sister in Bankra. We found some of Sweta’s acquaintances. They are being questioned,” the officer said.

The police are scanning Sweta’s bank accounts to trace if she made any transactions in the last few days.

Aryan and Sweta ran a social media channel, Isara Entertainment, on which girls were made to dance in music videos, the police said.

The duo would allegedly tap prospective young women to join their event management company, make them participate in shoots for music videos and force them into dubious activities, a preliminary investigation revealed.

After joining the event management company in Domjur, the young woman refused to toe the line and was allegedly subjected to mental and physical torture for several months.

The BJP on Tuesday accused the Trinamool of shielding the criminals.

“Where are the candle marches? Why is Bengal’s administration criminally silent on this barbarity?” state BJP president Sukanta Majumdar wrote on X.

Majumdar posted pictures of some Trinamool leaders of Howrah sharing space with Sweta Khan.