In one of the most gruesome murders in the city’s recent memory, a middle-aged woman was found dead, with her arms severed and her throat slit, in her third-floor apartment at Dunlop, late on Tuesday.

Not a single item was found missing from the flat, leading investigators to suspect that the murder had “to do with an extra-marital relationship”.

The nature of wounds inflicted on 35-year-old Soma De suggested that she had been tortured to death with a vengeance, officials said.

Husband Satyajit, who found Soma’s body — followed by their four-year-old daughter Ishani — called in the cops. He was later rounded up for interrogation.

“We are exploring every angle that could have led to the murder,” said additional superintendent of police (Barrackpore) Supratim Sarkar.

Satyajit, a dealer in cellphones and eggs, returned home around 9.30 pm on Tuesday. He spent a few minutes speaking to Soma before taking daughter Ishani and leaving for a local physiotherapist’s chamber, where he would often go to treat a persistent problem in his leg.

Satyajit returned just before 11 pm. He later told police that he was “surprised” to find the front door of their apartment ajar. He entered, accompanied by his daughter, and went looking for Soma in their bedroom.

There, he found Soma’s lifeless body, the wounds on her limbs and her throat still bleeding. She had also been strangled, police added.

Satyajit called up his brother, Biswajit, and Belghoria police station. Biswajit rushed down from the family’s ancestral home near Sealdah’s Dimpatti, where Satyajit would go every day to manage the family business. Police from the local thana arrived to take the body away.

According to what Satyajit told the police, he had shut the door from outside while going to the clinic with his daughter. This, the officers said, ensured that the door could only be opened by Soma from the inside or by someone with a key from the outside.

Preliminary investigation suggests that someone known to Soma must have come visiting just after her husband left. There was no sign of any struggle at the point of entry and nothing in the sitting room had been upset. All this implies that Soma allowed the visitor easy access into the house.

The other possibility was of someone possessing keys to the apartment opening the door and then entering the bedroom to carry out the brutal murder.

Neighbours told investigators that they had not seen or heard anything.