Police officers probing the discovery of a skeleton in the Howrah house of a merchant navy officer missing for nine years will question his wife and daughter on Monday.

Tarit Chatterjee’s 25-year-old daughter Munmun and wife Shelly have not lodged any missing complaint despite knowing that he has been missing since December 2004, police said.

Officials from the state forensic department will take possession of the skeleton on Monday for tests. Sleuths have said it would be impossible to find out whose skeleton it is without detailed tests.

Mumun, who teaches at a school in Birbhum’s Rampurhat, have told the police that she stumbled upon the bones after entering the house for the first time in nine years on Friday. Munmun and her mother moved out in 2004, before Tarit went missing.

Relatives and neighbours said the part of the Natabar Paul Road house where Tarit lived with his family had been locked since he went missing.

“The daughter said the family had searched several places for Tarit... it’s surprising they did not lodge a complaint in Rampurhat or Howrah. We need to verify the statements of the daughter and the mother,” said Nishat Parvez, the deputy commissioner (headquarters) of Howrah police.

Parvez said Munmun and Shelly would be questioned separately in the office of the detective department. Later, they will be interrogated together. They may even be asked to accompany sleuths to the house.

“We have talked to Munmun and Shelly over the phone and asked them to report to our office by 11am on Monday,” said Parvez.

After the skeleton was discovered on Friday, the police questioned Munmun and a relative who was with her in the house. Munmun stayed back at the relative’s house in Dasnagar, Howrah, on Friday night and returned to Rampurhat on Saturday.

The police said the skeleton looked clean with no traces of flesh or muscles, prompting them to wonder whether it had been dumped in the house.