Desire and deceit sounded the death knell for a young musician in Howrah, whose wife and friend have been rounded up for allegedly plotting his murder.

Howrah police recovered the body of Rajkumar Hela, 30, on Monday morning from a garbage bin in Fakir Bagan Lane, in the Golabari thana area.

The body bore multiple injury marks on the head and other parts. There were strangulation marks on his throat, as well.

Rajkumar, alias Raju, a banjo player in a local orchestra, had gone missing since Sunday night. The victim’s wife Rupa and his friend Udbaksh Singh were both arrested on Monday evening for their alleged role in the murder.

Piecing together the sequence of events, police said at around 9.30 pm on Sunday, when Rajkumar was about to sit down for dinner, he received a call on his cellphone.

“He left in a hurry, without saying where he was going,” Rupa told police.

“From the injuries, it appears that he was hit on the back of the head with a blunt weapon. But we cannot confirm how he died till the post-mortem report arrives,” said Mihir Bhattacharya, superintendent of police, Howrah.

There is no trace of Raju’s cellphone, but police are trying to trace the number from which he had received that call on Sunday night.

Preliminary investigation revealed that Rupa was having an extra-marital relationship with Raju’s friend Udbaksh, a resident of Oriya Para in Howrah.

Udbaksh was a frequent visitor to their place, especially when Raju wasn’t around.

According to neighbours, whenever Raju would leave town for a few days, Udbaksh would camp in his house. This had sparked trouble between Raju and his wife. There were reports of altercations between Raju and Udbaksh, as well.

“Relations between Raju and Rupa had deteriorated over the liaison,” confirmed superintendent of police Bhattacharya.

“We have learnt that the couple often used to argue over this and Raju was even threatened by Udbaksh a few times,” police said, on the basis of what some neighbours had to say.

According to witnesses, a few days ago, Rupa had left Raju for Udbaksh, only to return after some arrangement was reached between the friends.

“It does appear that the murder was a fallout of all this,” said Bhattacharya.