A murder probe has been initiated into the death of the 34-year-old man who was found hanging from a ceiling fan in Sarsuna on Tuesday.

Following a preliminary autopsy on Wednesday, police shifted focus from suicide to homicide. A murder case has been initiated against the victim’s wife and brother-in-law.

Sunny Singh was found hanging in the dining room of the house on Sarsuna Ram Road on the southern fringes of the city around 7am. He was declared dead at Vidyasagar State General Hospital.

A case of “unnatural death” was drawn up at Sarsuna police station, while the body was sent for a post-mortem.

“The post-mortem suggested that the death was not caused by hanging, rather Sunny had died before he was hanged,” an officer said.

In forensic pathology, an ante-mortem finding refers to injuries or biological reactions that occurred while the individual was still alive. These are distinguished from post-mortem changes, which are the physical and chemical alterations that occur to a body after death has taken place.

“A murder case under Section 103 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita has been drawn up based on a complaint lodged by Sangita Shaw, the victim’s sister, against Sunny’s wife, Punita and his brother-in-law, Rakesh Paswan,” the officer said.

The police suspect a family dispute to be the reason behind the murder.

Around six months ago, the couple moved out of their house on Ekbalpore Lane and moved to the rented accommodation in Sarsuna.

“On Monday night, a quarrel cropped up between the couple. The wife told the police that her husband was a habitual drinker,” said an officer.

The police said that one of the couple’s neighbours, Kallol Hirak, told them that around 6.50am on Tuesday, Punita called him seeking help. She said that her bedroom was locked from the outside and she couldn’t step out with her daughter.

Kallol informed other neighbours who joined him to help Punita. They helped her come down through the balcony adjoining the bedroom.

“Punita then opened the lock on the gate and entered the house to find her husband hanging,” the officer said.

The neighbours called the police.

The police had not found any apparent external injury marks except “a non-continuous ligature mark around the victim’s neck.

A case of suicide changed after the initial autopsy report suggested that the death was ante-mortem, the police said.

“The two accused are being questioned,” the officer said.